Charlesworth Nuts

At Charlesworth Nuts we love what we do. And we have thousands of people telling us they love what we do too. What better way to share this love than through the internet? We’ll tell you what’s going on at the Nuthouse and you can tell us what you think....

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Watching our Glazing Team create Charlesworth’s very popular Glazed Peanuts is completely fascinating. Fresh peanuts and sugary goodness are stirred in large copper pots by hand, and when the perfect colour is achieved, they are poured onto marble tables to cool completely. Thanks to the skill (and muscle) of our team, the finished product is fresh Australian peanuts with a sweet ‘n’ crunchy toffee coating! Did you know that we also glaze Australian Almonds and Macadamias too? Ask for a free taste next time you visit any of our Charlesworth Nuts stores.

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We had a brilliant morning installing the new Fathers Day window in Charlesworth Nuts’ Rundle Mall store with the very talented visual merchandiser, Paris. To see our vision for the new Fathers Day range beautifully represented in the shop window was exciting. All of our 11 stores are now stocking this new range and the gift baskets are sporting a very cool kraft brown Fathers Day gift tag. We are so proud of our products and know you just love them too. While you are there, why not grab a cup of hot nuts to keep you company while you do your Rundle Mall shopping!

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Its been a whopping 42 years since our Charlesworth Nuts kiosk rode into the Marion Shopping Centre carpark on a low-loader trailer! With the help of a much needed crane, the kiosk was lifted down and then rolled through the carpark on steel rollers. Brett Charlesworth was just a teenager at the time, and clearly remembers this particular Sunday morning. He recalls that they needed to temporarily remove the shopping centre’s doors in order to squeeze the new Charlesworth shop through into the mall. With only an inch to spare on either side, you can imagine that everyone was holding their breath! The stylish kiosk shop was finally set in place near Woolworths. Of course, the Marion Shopping Centre back then was substantially smaller than what we are lucky enough to have today. In fact, that whole arm of Westfield Marion wasn't even built! In 1974, the Charlesworth kiosk sat approximately where Cafe De Paris is currently located. We’ve changed a lot over the past 82 years and yet so much has stayed the same.... we are still a South Australian Family business making and selling the best and freshest nuts, fruits and chocolates in Australia. Visit one of our 11 stores this weekend and don’t forget to get a free taste of something delicious!

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Want to feel like a millionaire but not keen on robbing any banks!? We’ve made it super easy for you with our famous ‘Salted Millionaires Mix’. It’s got all your favourites including Salted Macadamias & Cashews with Blanched Almonds and Smoked Pecans & Almonds – an assortment as rich as its name! On sale right now online or at your local Charlesworth store.

http://www.charlesworthnuts.com.au/shop/loose-products/cooked-nuts/salted-millionaires-mix-2/

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Charlesworth Nuts Christmas Gift Baskets

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Thanks For Your Thoughts…

Just back after some time off ready to continue working on the great new product ideas we have many of which have been suggested by you.  We officially closed off our competition for new product ideas on 31st January, although having said that I'd be happy to receive your suggestions and feedback anytime.  Now we start to test and develop (and of course taste) the products we want to make and can make.

There are some sensational suggestions that have come through.  It was encouraging to see that many of them are along the lines of what we thought so at least we're all on the same track. Some of them we're not currently equipped to produce in commercial quantities but they still provide food for thought for the future.

One fairly consistent theme was chocolate coated lollies of every imaginable shape, form and flavour.  Jamie-Lee, Robyn, Carly, Angela and Amanda all suggested variations along this line which we're going to test.  As I mentioned a couple of blogs ago, last year we released Raspberry Lolly Chocs which proceeded to break a 77 year old record for the most popular new product release at Charlesworth Nuts. If they're anything to go by some of these other lolly and chocolate combinations could be huge hits!

We're currently experimenting with many lollies including jelly beans, mint leaves, chico babies, jelly babies, pineapples, milk bottles (and the list goes on) in white, dark and milk chocolate.  (The combinations with nuts, fruits, chocolates and lollies are truly infinite.) We're currently individually coating them (like our Chocolate Almonds etc…) although there is an option of doing them as a cluster and potentially combining them with other products too.

Celia and Lenore would like something with whole glace cherries; Jen, Mich and Jo reckon dried cranberries on their own or with chocolate would be a goer; Jo Perry promulgated a very innovative "exotics" range combining all sorts of interesting nuts and fruits; Paul suggested a popcorn range and LeeAnne pondered Peanut and other Brittles.  Peanut butter products and various choc fruits also scored a mentioned. All these things plus more are on the drawing board for either this year or beyond.  There'll be some tough decisions to make deciding what makes the cut.

I've only mentioned a few people but a big thank you to everyone who commented or emailed their suggestions.  I love hearing your thoughts.  Obviously we can't act on all of them for one reason or another but they're all taken on board and are all greatly appreciated.

Before the end of February I'll announce what new products we're definitely going with this year.  Some will be ongoing and some will be for one month only.  Watch this blog to be the first to know and see if any of your suggestions come to fruition (and win you some of that product).

In the meantime don't forget Valentines Day on Monday, 14th February.  If you want "naughty" or nice" Valentine Day gifts, we have both.  Why not check out our "tasty" (in every sense of the word) range.

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The Juices Are Flowing…

Brilliant! There are a lot of highly imaginative and creative people out there when it comes to new product ideas.  I guess it's true for many of us that our creative juices flow most copiously from our salivary glands. Mmmmmm!!! Anyway, please keep your ideas rolling in. 

We've had a lot of emails as well as the blog responses. We'll keep harvesting your ideas until Jan 31st and then start to narrow down the huge list to the 10 products we're going to release this year.  Some will be for a limited time only, some will be ongoing.

Please don't be offended if your idea doesn't make the final selection…there's just so many great ideas to choose from that many will have to miss out…for now.  The other thing is that we currently may not have the necessary equipment or machinery to be able to manufacture some of the products that have been suggested.  I can guarantee you though that we will come up with an interesting and diverse list.  No doubt some will be hits and some will be misses but we'll have a lot of fun along the way trying them.  There'll be sweet, there'll be savoury…there'll be nuts, there'll be fruit…and undoubtedly chocolate will feature prominently as well.

I'll do it properly after 31st Jan but in the meantime I just want to thank everyone who has contributed so far.  Your ideas and some of the positive general comments you've given us about our Company and our products have been very rewarding.  We're very open to constructive criticism as well so if there are any areas you think we can improve please just let us know at any stage.  Anyway a BIG THANKS for your comments to date.

One other thing I'd like to let you know is that over Christmas we raised $7,500 which we will give to the Make-A-Wish Foundation who grant wishes for children with life threatening illnesses.  We raised this by donating $5 from every "Chappy's Christmas Wish" basket that we sold.  The mathematical giants amongst you will quickly deduce that that equates to 1500 gift baskets.

We've been partnering Make-A-Wish for many years now and have raised well over $100,000 in that time.  We introduced "Chappy's Christmas Wish" as a fundraiser in 2008 in memory of our Dad who passed away that year at 81.  Chappy was a great man who believed in and supported young people right throughout his life.  He'd be thrilled that this work is still being carried on in his name supporting young people and their families through some incredibly difficult times.   Thank you to everyone who supported this fantastic cause by buying one of our "Wish" baskets.  Keep an eye out for the 2011 version in our Christmas range this year… (only 340 more sleeps until Christmas).

Lastly I just want to wish you all a very happy Australia Day.  Nothing's perfect but this is a great country we live in with a lot of great people.  Australia Day is a good time to celebrate all the positive things that being an Australian means.  It's easy to knock and be negative but it's so much more rewarding and uplifting to be positive and acknowledge what's great in the world and work positively at changing what's not.  Charlesworth Nuts is a very proud, 3rd generation, South Australian and Australian family business.  Our products are made at our Marion Factory in SA and wherever possible our products are Australian grown.  Our number one criteria when sourcing our products is to make sure they're the best in the world…and it just so happens that nuts and fruits grown in Australia are equal to or better than the best.  Shoulders back, chest out and stand tall on Australia Day.

I'm taking next week off for a large slice of "chill out" pie, so please try and survive without my incredibly exciting, informative and compelling blog for one week!!!  I look forward to catching up with you after that, reading more of your new product ideas and finding out whether you are going to be "naughty" or "nice" this Valentines Day…we can help you either way.  Stay tuned for more.

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Happy New Year Means Yummy New Products

Happy New Year from everyone at Charlesworth Nuts to you and your families.  We hope the festive season was filled with everything that's important to you.

We've just finished the incredibly frantic, frenetic, fun-filled and often  fascinating time that is Christmas at Charlesworth Nuts.  I'm rapt to report it was a pretty good one too.  Despite media and other reports that it was a flat Christmas for many retailers we defied the trend and enjoyed some very healthy increases in all stores and locations.  Our online sales alone experienced a 44% increase throughout November and December.

All 300 of us take great pride in what we do so successful results like these in challenging times are very rewarding and make us all stand a little taller.  Thank you for your support with this.

But as they say, "there's no rest for the wicked".  With the Christmas pudding barely digested and the New Years fireworks still echoing in the breeze, I've just had a meeting with many of the key people in our company discussing plans, projects and actions for the upcoming year.   I'm pleased to tell you the 2011 pipeline is already full of exciting activities that we're preparing to pump out for you.

As the title of this blog suggests the New Year means New Products at Charlesworth.  This time every year we have the very pleasant task of deciding on our range of "Fresh Tastes" products.  First we search far and wide amongst our team members and Customers for new product ideas…then we decide which ones to try…then we make them…and then we submit ourselves to the gruelling process of taste-testing and assessing all the possibilities.  It's tough work but someone has to do it.

Imagine it…all sorts of dark, white and pure milk chocolate concoctions…cooked nuts flavoured and spiced with countless combinations of condiments…innovative new mixes from the infinite permutations possible…and at times different raw nuts and dried fruits that come into vogue.  All have to be tasted and assessed.  At the end of this exhaustive trialling we finalise a range of new products that we release on a monthly basis throughout the year.

So now it's the call to action…DO YOU HAVE ANY NEW PRODUCT IDEAS FOR US?

If so please let me know asap so we can consider them for 2011.  Some of the criteria we use to help make our decisions include…

Does it fit in with our profile as nut, fruit and chocolate specialists? We have to be true to our core.

Will it have broad appeal?  There are thousands of potential products that some people will like, we want products that will appeal to many people.

Is it unique or can we add elements to it or vary it some way to make it uniquely our own?

If your idea gets selected in our range in 2011 we'll give you a years supply, at one kilo a month, to feast on.  If 2 or more people suggest the same product the FIRST person to suggest it will receive the year's supply and then all the others will receive a one kilo gift.

That's it until next week…have a great New Year…and I look forward to hearing your ideas.

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Smell The Nuts

One of the things I’m planning to do with this blog is give you a look behind the scenes at what we do in the Nuthouse and right throughout Charlesworth Nuts.  How we make our products, how we develop our gift baskets and gift hampers, how we come up with new products, maybe even introduce you to a few of the people behind the scenes…all that type of thing. A lot of the stuff we take for granted, but other people find really interesting.

For example when many people enter our factory for the first time, either visitors or new team members, they suddenly stop, tilt their head slightly upward,  discretely sniff the air and then tentatively ask, “What’s that smell?”

Our first instinct is to double check that we remembered the deodorant that morning but invariably they’re talking about the tempting, teasing, titillating cooking smells that permeate every nook and cranny of our premises that we who work there  just take for granted.

It’s usually either cashews, almonds or peanuts being roasted…or the sweet smell from our glazing department where we make our toffee coated nuts the old fashioned way stirring them in big copper pots over a gas flame.  It’s the same in all our retail stores where our nuts are freshly cooked every day.

Whatever it is that has grabbed their attention they remain motionless and dreamy for several seconds, exploring the atmosphere with their nostrils, tentatively at first and then more vigorously as they realise they like what they smell and then finally comes that inevitable question demanding a response. ..”What’s that smell?”

It’s an important lesson to all of us. You’ve  heard the expression “take the time to smell the roses”, well I think all of us who work at Charlesworth Nuts occasionally need to “take the time to smell the nuts” and really appreciate it and enjoy it as much as we did the first few times.

So the nutty metaphor I want to leave you with today is simply this…this Christmas take the time to appreciate the myriad of beautiful, amazing, inspiring, sweet smelling things that surround you everyday that are too often taken for granted.  It’s good for the soul.

Can’t wait to take you deep behind the scenes in future blogs.

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Nuts About Christmas

There’s so much to tell you it’s hard to know where to start…maybe with Christmas.

At Charlesworth Nuts everything is focused on Christmas.  We love Christmas time.   It’s such a busy time of year but if you get into the spirit of Christmas it’s also the best time of year no matter how busy and crazy it gets.

Our team numbers double to about 300 at Christmas, spread pretty evenly between our 8 retail stores and our factory.    Not surprisingly considering the time of year, our Gift Packing team at our Marion factory increases from about 10 people to 60 (mainly ladies because they’re better at making gifts!!).

A gift from Charlesworth Nuts has become incredibly popular in recent years, in fact last year we calculated that one in 10 people in Adelaide received a Charlesworth Nuts gift basket, gift hamper or gift pack.  Stuff like that makes us feel very proud.  Now that you can order online we can now send them right around Australia too (maybe 1 in 10 Australians will soon be getting a Charlesworth Nuts gift at Christmas. That’d be good!!).

Lots of businesses order them too, to give to staff, clients and associates.  It’s a pretty easy option  and everyone loves our products…so if you’re the one who has to organise this you can’t wrong.  That’s the feedback we get anyway.

Even though we make 1000′s and 1000′s of gifts we never lose sight of the fact that each one ends up as a single gift given from one person to another so each gift must be given the same care and attention to detail as every other one.  Our gift team treat each gift as though they’re giving it to their very own loved one.  It’s a simple philosophy but it works for us.

"Go nuts with your gifts this Christmas!"

I guess the main message of this blog though is that no matter how busy and tired you get during this crazy (dare I say nutty) time of year, make sure you make it a happy time.  Get into the spirit.  Get the decorations up.

Be kind and patient with each other, and have fun…they’re all much better options than the alternatives, aren’t they?  I know that’s what we’ll all be doing right throughout Charlesworth Nuts.  ‘Til next time…

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Charlesworth Christmas Basket Preview

Christmas Gift Baskets

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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What's your favourite Charlesworth product?

The one that really makes your eyes light up.

Maybe it’s one of our freshly cooked nuts, roasted in store daily & never re-heated. Maybe Salted Cashews, Smoked Almonds or Salted Macadamias.  Maybe a Salted Mixture. Or do you prefer chocolate?  One of our fresh nuts or fruits coated at our Marion Charlesworth factory with pure milk chocolate. Or maybe you prefer creamy white or exotically dark chocolate. Or is your favourite one of our raw nuts or dried fruits...all amazingly good for you & are packed full of nutrients. Or maybe glazed nuts covered in toffee...or if singling one product out is too hard for you, your favourite might be one of the 20 different mixes we have available. 

Worked it out yet?...now what’s your second favourite?

Can you believe it?  Charlesworth have over 140 of the best and freshest nuts, fruits and chocolates in Australia for you to choose from with exciting new products being added every month to your range of choices. You can choose our products either pre-bagged for your convenience or sold loose from our showcase so you get the exact amount you want. You can choose the perfect nibbles for your Christmas parties and entertaining...or the best ingredients for your Christmas cooking...or choose the ideal product for healthy snacking. Whatever you choose you know you’re getting the absolute best from a South Australian family company who have been perfecting their art for over 75 years.

“Just make sure you get your Charlesworth!”

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The Nut Story – An Introduction

Hi my name’s Brett Charlesworth and I’m the Head Nut at Charlesworth Nuts.   I’ve come to the conclusion that if you can’t make a blog about nuts interesting then there’s something seriously wrong, so I’m going to have a crack at it.

A bit of back story first. We’re a family business and I’m part of the 3rd generation (along with my brother Mark) to own and run the company.  We’ve been selling Australia’s best and freshest nuts, fruits and chocolates for over 70 years.   As part of a family business I’ve grown up with nuts…the edible kind not the human kind of course…although in all honesty there have been a few nuts on our family tree as well, some of them more cracked than others.  I’ve been around nuts so long that my middle son Kain (I’ve got 3) says even my head is shaped like a peanut.

"My son Kain says even my head is shaped like a peanut....Can't see it myself!"

As you can imagine, before I was 20 I’d heard every nut joke variation 100 times over.  “You must be nuts?”… “How are things at the nuthouse?” … “How’s your nuts?”… “Are your nuts fresh?”  and one of my personal favourites … “Do you have crushed nuts?”

It’s now 30 years down the track and I’m still hearing the same one-liners.  Being the incredibly sensitive and polite person I am though, I respectfully laugh every time.  As I said before if you can’t have a bit of fun with nuts then what’s the world coming to.  So that’s we’ll try to do in this blog…have a bit of fun…plus keep you up to date on all things “nutty” at Charlesworths, new products and stuff…give you some insights into the amazing health benefits of our products (they even stagger me some times) …share nutty recipe ideas (there’s a million of ‘em) …and maybe some quirky stuff for trivia buffs…I guess whatever springs into my nutty mind which gives us some pretty broad parameters.

You can help me too.  What nuts, fruits or chocolate do you like?  Do you have any nut questions? Maybe you’d like to share a favourite nut joke?… (nothing too risqué of course).  Or even a suggestion for a new product.  Anything at all.  Go nuts.  Doh!!!