The Trading Post are twenty years old this November and we want everyone to celebrate with us. There have been ups and downs, thousands of kilometres of driving, tons of sausages sold and megalitres of beers, ciders and soft drinks. Here's a few of the best facts, and stories, behind twenty years of delivering British goods to the people of France...
As some of you well know, The Trading Post started in November 2006 as a small family business selling staple British goods (mostly bacon and sausages) to Alpine hotels and chalets who were finding it difficult to source quality "full English" breakfast items for skiers, snowboarders and other assorted winter holidaymakers. Since those simple beginnings, the company has grown in a variety of ways and now supplies all manner of British, French and International products to retail customers, supermarkets, wholesalers, events, bars, restaurants and hotels throughout France and neighbouring parts of Europe. Still a family business, in 2006 one of our core team was literally toddling around the office throwing paperwork on the floor at 2 years old, a habit she has fortunately left far behind...
Whilst The Trading Post has moved from a spare handful of products to selling literally thousands of different items from all over the World, we have continued to sell some iconic British fayre in massive quantities. In the interests of "fun" we decided to try and work out how many tins of beans and links of sausages that have passed through our hands in 20 years. Unfortunately that was FAR too complicated so instead we just looked at one year out of twenty (2025). Here are our much more accurate estimates for last year...
Enough pork sausages in 2025 to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower... 230 times! That's over 75km of bangers.
About 22,000 mince pies, which is sufficient to give everyone in Albertville (of 1992 Winter Olympics fame) a Christmas treat.
Approximately 30 tonnes of baked beans, which is the equivalent of four classic Routemaster double-decker buses.
However, The Trading Post has not just been about importing goods and improving breakfasts. We may have grown into one of (if not) the biggest distributor of British goods in France, but along the way we've become a mainstay of life in France for thousands of British expats, holidaymakers and business owners. We are lucky to receive regular emails (and just the other day a beautiful bunch of flowers - including very colourful Hydrangeas) from customers who appreciate being able to get real Cadbury chocolate, proper crumpets, Weston's ciders and all manner of other British goodies.
There have been ups and downs for our team. The "downs" range from the genuinely life-threatening to simply embarrassing. A few years ago the office received a phone call from our (then-)newest member of staff who had gone for a run on his day off and completely misjudged Alpine winter conditions. The office then had the task of arranging a helicopter rescue from an inaccessible, snow-inundated valley where he was stuck and rapidly developing hypothermia. Fortunately all ended well (after a couple of days in hospital) and our intrepid/naive friend is still working at The Trading Post today (albeit whilst still somewhat prone to inadvisable sporting activity). Other "downs" tend to pale into insignificance, such as a driver getting stuck in the back of the van on a hot day in Southern France and having to dismantle the door from the inside in the dark, customers entering the warehouse to encounter very expressive (and mistimed) flatulence caused by a lunch of baked beans and, resulting from sitting on a broken pallet in the warehouse, an almost legendary wooden splinter in the bum!
There have been almost too many good times to mention; not least because the team can practically party when the Cadbury Mini Eggs arrive before Easter. We've had special dietary requests from celebrities staying in the ski resorts, whole festivals supplied with our British beers and the time when the car park was filled with errant cows.
Overall there's been plenty to celebrate and that's why we're finishing 2026 with a cornucopia of prizes, deals and general commemorations. Join us on our website, facebook and insta throughout November as the party starts!
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