Its when our phones start ringing off the hook and the emails just keep dropping in, On the Machine manufacture side of things everything starts to get a bit crazy, all of our existing customers start to book in there work for the summer and find themselves needing more machines and all the businesses which have the problem of the year end tax return purchase there machine either in March or the first of April. So the machines start flying out the door, we always like to make sure that we have a couple of hundred machines stacked up in boxes ready to go, and this year is no different, we have three hundred machines in boxes on our shelves ready to go and the orders are already coming in thick and fast, and as all of our customers know, this enables us to deliver the machines direct with our customers the very next day after they place there order no matter where in the UK they are, or no matter which machine they have ordered with whichever attachment, or even spare parts, because we know that in our industry, if you need a part, you need it the next day because the chances are that your machine is going to be out cooking a pig the next day. This is why our customers love us so much, they can rely on us, many of our customers even have our mobile numbers, so they can call us no matter what the problem or query and we are always happy to talk them through any problem and situation, we realise that as a small caterer starting out, some things can be a bit daunting but for us it is all part of the service and we try to make it as easy as possible for our machine customers.

On the catering side of things, our office becomes manic with the amount of quotes we send out starting to triple from what they were in January, its when the sunshine shows its pretty little head and people start thinking of events they are having in the Summer, and they are very wise to be in front, every week we have people ringing and emailing us who are running around last minute trying to find a caterer, but of course in our game like any wise business, we are trying to ensure that all of our depots are out every week doing what they do, and in order to do that they book there work in as soon as they can for the forthcoming months and indeed years. So inevitably the people running around last minute either end up paying more than they should because there caterer ends up travelling from very far away or they end up not being able to get a caterer.

The actual catering side of things is still quite quiet in comparison to the summer months but for the offices it is the busiest time of the year, and after the quiet months it can come as quite a shock to the system. The Post in the morning is like Valentines Day at the Playboy mansion, with all the signed contracts and deposits for the catering events and hires of the machines and we literally have to employ extra staff to answer the phones and to keep on top of all the quotes. We always make sure that before we go home at night every email has been answered and every quote has been sent, but in March this means that some days we are in the office until past ten o'clock at night, but we all know its a necessary thing to do because if we ever get behind with the quotes it can be a real nightmare to get back in front and it just ends up with our customers and individual departments getting upset.

So here comes another year of weddings, birthday parties, corporate events and a couple of thousand pigs, a few hundred new machines, a few hundred machine hires, a few sleepless nights and a whole lot of happy customers. Because at the end of the day that’s what its all about, our customers getting exactly what they ask for, when they ask for it, and every year, year on year that’s exactly what we do. In March we have a big annual Spitting Pig meeting, where all of our depots and us get together and discuss all the ins and outs of our individual depots and lay everything on the table, we are just like a big happy family, and we all look after each other, we feel its important that we all know each other and work together so we all know exactly whets going on in the whole Spitting Pig operation, and everyone appreciates it. And because we are the country’s only national caterer of hog roasts and machine manufacturer we believe it is vital to our success.