ahmedabad with offices opening and markets functioning almost as usual the trend of corporate gifting has picked up pace in the runup to diwali real estate developers it and pharmaceutical companies which have a sizeable budget for corporate gifts are leading the pack however companies that specialize in corporate gifts suggest that while order volumes have revived overall budgets have shrunk by at least 40 ravi parekh founder of a corporate gifting company said the market is very good postnavratri and orders from corporates have started pouring in since then however budgets have reduced drastically as companies in some sectors are still in revival mode the order volumes are good it companies have particularly increased their budgets for employee gifting whereas pharma companies too are spending well on corporate gifts for clientselectronic items including power banks temperaturesensing water bottles and wireless chargers are largely in demand the focus has clearly shifted away from dry fruits and sweets which were once popular among corporates for diwali giftsgourmet food products ranging from imported coffee handmade chocolates sherbets a variety of flavoured teas organic and vegan gourmet food are being widely preferred for giftinga number of hotels in the city have also launched their gifting range including candles sweets savouries and confectioneries several financial institutions banks and even embassies are placing bulk orders for our diwali gifting range at the same time several guests have also been purchasing these for their family and friends said jaideep anand general manager of a gandhinagarbased luxury hotel industry estimates suggest that the annual corporate gifting business in gujarat is at least worth rs 1000 crore of which a minimum of 40 takes place during diwali those getting gifting orders indicate that clients are asking for a lot of customisation and uniqueness clients require a personal touch and customisation since we specialise in traditional regional foods we get orders to create customised hampers with local sweets and savouries for clients for instance if a client is from west bengal then the hamper will comprise of specialty foods from west bengal said harmit singh founder of a citybased retailer of regional food productssmall businesses food entrepreneurs gain big from corporate ordersas corporate budgets have shrunk this time and the need for personalising gifts have increased a number of small businesses home chefs and bakers are gaining from the corporate gifting trend this diwalifor instance aditi shishoo whose ecommerce venture retailing speciality nuts and spices from kashmir is less than a year old bagged many corporate orders my venture is new and the response this time has been phenomenal we are catering to at least 10 corporates this time with orders from pharma and automobile sectors among others the kashmiri saffron and shilajit a herb and mineral formulation are a hit in diwali gifting hampers she saidsimilar is the case with many home chefs many people have started their own food ventures which are doing great this diwali corporates want to stand out so they seek unique