As Bunjit Singh surveyed the factory floor, a twinkle appeared to shine in his eye. That twinkle was one of pride; pride that a project many said would never come to fruition had indeed proved a success.

“Christmas may never have happened were it not for us”, said Singh. Delhi Christmas Enterprises (DCE) was awarded the contract for Christmas by Lapland Corporation back in April with the remit of making Christmas not just “good”, but “great”.

“Christmas has always been produced in Lapland”, said Singh. “So for us to take on a well-known brand, maintain productivity levels and prove that we can make a return on investment within year 1 – well, that’s just the first step!”

The maths make interesting reading. Lapland Corp. CEO F. Christmas made a compelling case to the board when it was revealed that elf pay had “gone through the snow-covered roof” over the last five years, and that elf employment expectations were no longer realistic.

F. Christmas explained “it was simply no longer viable. Before, an elf wanted a job for life. Today, it’s all iPhone and Facebook and they think they can go off and work for Sony Ericsson or someone like that. So we had to increase wages to try and keep up with the rest of the market. Quite simply – Christmas had become too expensive and we needed to outsource.”

“That’s when we sent out the request for tender and DCE came back with an offer that we simply couldn’t refuse. Of course we have to please our shareholders, and by slashing our wages bill by 95%, we’ve certainly done that. Ho ho ho.”

“I’m so proud of Delhi Christmas Enterprises. They incorporated our brand values immediately – they’ve even all changed their names to those of the reindeer! I dealt with a lovely gentleman from Bangalore called Blitzer last week!”

Shareholders are indeed pleased. Present production costs have been halved, and the distribution branch of DCE, Delhi Christmas Distribution (DCD) will handle delivery on Christmas Eve.

However, some customers are already voicing concerns. Pete Humpernickle-Swansick of Norwich has notched up a three-figure phone bill through customer support: “All I wanted was to make a modification to my daughter’s Christmas list, but I was handed from pillar to post and nobody could even find the Christmas wish list. Each time I had to use the automated system, pressing ‘2′ for Christmas-related enquiries. I really doubt that Christmas is even going to happen this year.”