Mercia Asset Management and Huggg

How Mercia Asset Management Transformed Christmas Gifting for Employees Across 11 Offices

From days of manual packing boxes to personalised digital gifting that actually brings distributed teams together.

Client Overview

Mercia Asset Management is a UK investment firm with around 140 people spread across 11 offices from Hull to Bristol. With investment professionals constantly travelling to meet portfolio companies and teams distributed nationwide, finding meaningful ways to show appreciation at Christmas had become increasingly complex.

For Mercia, Christmas gifting represents something important, it's how they reinforce the connection between teams and ensure everyone feels valued, particularly during what can be a financially challenging time of year.

"We're always looking at different ways of helping connect people. Christmas is a lovely time to do something bigger… we're all grown up now and don't get gifts the way we did as kids. It's really nice to receive something personal." — Jocelyne Bath, COO

The Challenge

Before partnering with Huggg, Mercia had tried various approaches to Christmas gifting. Monetary bonuses during tough economic times. Gift boxes requiring internal assembly. Standard hampers. Each approach came with its own challenges.

Most solutions came back to the same gift for everyone, which took away from the amount of personal thought and effort that went into the gesture.

"It's reminiscent of the standard hamper. People might like 50% of what's in there, but then they give away the other 50%, and that's not really what we were aiming for."

The Solution

Working with Huggg, Mercia found a way to maintain the personal touch they valued whilst removing the operational burden.

What made the difference:

• Meaningful choice: Employees could select from quality options, including champagne sets, headphones, and luxury candles. Something genuinely useful for everyone
• Simplified logistics: Upload email addresses, send links where employees can choose their gift and enter their delivery address - no complex distribution needed
• Branded experience: Mercia maintained their company identity and values throughout the gift-claim process
• Personal messaging: The executive team could add thoughtful messages that mattered
• Refreshed catalogue: Regular updates meant fresh options employees could choose from compared to the previous year

"All of those little touches makes the difference between us sending a generic supermarket voucher, and sending something that we put thought and effort into."

The Results

The impact was significant and immediate:

Operational Benefits:

• Eliminated internal packaging production lines
• Removed complex multi-office distribution challenges
• No need to know people's dietary requirements or up-to-date delivery addresses
• Fully GDPR compliant
• Streamlined the entire process to a simple email list upload
• Quick, professional assistance when help was needed

Team Response:

• Staff were genuinely surprised and pleased by the choice element
• Created organic conversations as colleagues compared selections
• Consistently positive feedback across two years
• Employees felt the value was genuine and transparent

"People really were blown away by the choice of gift... People chat about what they've chosen - 'who went for that and who did this? Did anyone get one of those?' It's been another way of bringing people together."

What Made It Work

The key factors in Mercia's success:

• Choice matters: When people choose their own gift, they get something they'll actually use and appreciate
• Scalability with personality: 100+ people across 11 offices, yet each gift felt considered
• Unexpected connections: Gift selection became a positive talking point across teams
• Genuine value: Huggg doesn’t cost any more than other suppliers, and saves days of admin
• Support when needed: Real people available to help

Let's Talk About Your Christmas Gifting

We understand the challenge of showing your team they're valued whilst managing the practical realities of distributed teams and busy schedules. If you'd like to explore how other companies like Mercia have approached this, we'd be happy to share insights and discuss what might work for your organisation.

Want to supercharge Christmas gifting for your team? Talk to us.