Hordes of teens hoping to get their hands on an Advent calendar featuring Harry Styles and co are set to be disappointed as a manufacturing problem delays production of this year’s One Direction calendar.
Wales-based confectioner Bon Bon Buddies, which holds the licences for One Direction, Doctor Who and Disney Advent calendars, may not be able to deliver millions of calendars to stores until “the third or fourth week of November”, a leading high street retailer has warned.
“Bon Bon Buddies are about to let down retailers up and down the country, and create a fair share of upset Harry Styles fans too,” the retailer said.
“While they will say the delay is OK as most calendar sales occur in the last two weeks of November, around 50% of our sales are in the first half of the month. We’ve still not been given a concrete delivery date.”
Deliveries of Bon Bon Buddies’ Advent calendars are usually expected around the first week of October as the rush begins to sell stocks before 1 December.
The retailer revealed it was considering cancelling its entire Christmas order with Bon Bon Buddies if deliveries were too late and may also withdraw a significant Easter order, as “there is no guarantee this won’t happen again”.
Chris Howarth, MD of Bon Bon Buddies, denied the Advent calendars would arrive in the second half of November and insisted 90% of customers would receive them “on time” from mid to late October.
“A small proportion of customers will experience up to a three-week delay, with stock being delivered in the first two weeks of November,” Howarth said.
“Given that more than 80% of Advent calendars are sold in the last two weeks of November each year, we hope this will not overly disrupt our customers’ selling plans.
“We are keeping our customers informed of progress every step of the way, and are working hard to ensure that those who may experience a delay will receive their stock as soon as possible.”
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