GAIL’s is launching an online Christmas Gift Shop on 5 November, bringing together pantry products, homeware, gifts and hampers under the campaign message ‘Gifts to Eat or Keep’, alongside a festive menu in its bakeries.
The edible side of the range is led by GAIL’s 1kg sourdough panettone in four flavours, chocolate, classic, orange and mandarin, and pistachio, each at £35. Alongside them are spiced pear chutney and winter berry jam at £6.50 each, a three-jar jam box (£19.50), Festive Coffee (£12), and salted caramel and toasted buckwheat bars, caramelised almonds, hazelnuts and Brazil nuts, dark chocolate honeycomb, gingerettes and orangettes, priced from £8 to £8.50. The pantry selection also includes GAIL’s branded olives, Citizens of Soil extra virgin olive oil (£19) and Cornish sardines and oak-smoked trout in extra virgin olive oil.
Homeware runs from a £10 metal toast rack and flat white mug to a ceramic teapot (£30), a crossback apron (£55), a bread knife (£65) and a Welsh blanket at £189. There are bespoke hot chocolate beakers and mince pie and cake plates by John Julian, beeswax candles from London Honey Co (£16), a kids’ baking kit (£15) and chef’s hat (£8), and seasonal tote bags in orange, burgundy and dark green at £18 each. Gift cards are available in the bakeries.
Six hampers complete the range, among them For the Host (£75), For the One Who Likes to Linger (£85), For the One Who Likes Nice Things (£150) and For the One Who Loves Christmas (£190), as well as The Thank You Hamper and The Very Big Thank You Hamper.
In the bakeries, the Christmas menu adds two new bakes: Sticky Toffee Madeleines (£2), made with a spiced date-based batter and tossed in butterscotch sauce, and a Cavolo Nero Garlic & Pesto Bun (£5.50) made with brioche dough, cavolo nero and pecan pesto, ricotta and alpine Gruyère. The Turkey & Swiss Cheese Sandwich (£7.80), a seasonal bestseller, now uses shredded turkey in a freshly baked cream bun in place of sliced bread, while the Turkey Hand Pie (£5.70) has been reworked with pulled turkey, caramelised onions and a spiced redcurrant glaze. Mince pies, the Panettone Slice, Christmas Bun, Ricciarelli and Iced Penguins return.
GAIL’s has also worked with its chocolate partner Xoco, whose cocoa butter is pressed from cacao sourced and fermented directly from its partner farms, to develop a white chocolate syrup in its central kitchen. It is the base for three new drinks, a Salted White Hot Chocolate (£4.30), a White Chocolate Mocha (£5.70) and a White Chocolate Matcha (£5.80), which are joined by a Black Forest Cold Brew (£5.30) made with a lightly spiced cherry purée.
“Christmas is one of our favourite times to develop the menu because there’s so much nostalgia around the food people love. The challenge is finding that balance between keeping the favourites everyone looks forward to and introducing something genuinely new.
Catie, Head of Food, GAIL’s
We’ve spent time refining recipes, from the texture and flavour of our turkey roll to the development of our own white chocolate syrup using cocoa butter from Xoco. It’s those little details that make a difference. We want everything on the Baker’s Table to feel familiar enough to be comforting, but interesting enough to make you want to try something new.”
The menu is available in all GAIL’s bakeries and selected stores, and for delivery via Deliveroo and Uber Eats, following the bakery’s expansion of UK delivery through Uber Eats in August.
Founded by Yael (Gail) Mejia in the early 1990s and co-founded as a neighbourhood bakery business by Tom Molnar, GAIL’s grew from supplying bread to London restaurants to nearly 200 bakeries across the UK, including travel hub sites at London Bridge and Liverpool Street. Its first bakery opened in Hampstead in 2005.
The Christmas Gift Shop goes live at GAILS.com on 5 November, the same day the festive menu arrives in the bakeries.
Terry Clark is the Publisher and Content Director of 365 Retail, with more than a decade of experience covering retail design, technology innovations, store openings and the wider retail industry. He also works closely with leading retailers, suppliers, agencies, events and industry awards across the UK.
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