From a home kitchen in London to the best marmalade in the world. Here's how it all happened.
I'm going to be honest with you. When I made my first batch of jam in my kitchen in 2016, I had absolutely no idea what I was starting. I just thought jam could be better. Less sugar. Tastier fruit. More honesty about what was actually in the jar.
Ten years later, we have a pink factory floor in Bristol, a team I'm incredibly proud of, and a Double Gold award for the world's best marmalade sitting on the shelf.
Ever wondered how we got here? Here's the story of the first 10 years!
2016 The Beginning
After discovering the most delicious jams whilst on holiday in Sri Lanka, I got cooking, and Single Variety Co was born! I started making everything at home, using the best fruit I could find and a lot less sugar than most jams on the supermarket shelves. Realising I needed a USP, I settled on "single variety", with the aim of creating the tastiest jams, each showcasing just one single variety.
At the weekends, I'd pack up the car and head to farmers' markets across London, testing out new recipe ideas. Two cult classics were born that year: Jalapeño Jam and Passionfruit Preserve. People went absolutely mad for them and I started to think... I might be onto something here!
2017 Getting Professional
I rented my first real (and very small) kitchen at Merton Abbey Mills in SW19. My best friend Kate came to help, and between us we crammed six portable hobs in and got cooking. Each jam batch yielded only 20 to 30 jars. It was hot, it was hard work, and it was brilliant!
That year we signed our first proper wholesale customers, including Jones of Brockley, Mons Cheese in Dulwich, Margot Bakery in Finchley, Dugard & Daughters in Herne Hill and Papadeli in Bristol. They're all still stocking our jams today, which makes me incredibly proud. We were very much learning as we went, but we always made sure our jam was delicious and customers kept coming back.
2018 The First Big Break
Everything changed at our very first trade show. A German hamper company found us, loved what we were doing, and placed an order for 8,700 jars of raspberry preserve. Honestly? I said yes before I had thought it through, which led to six weeks of non-stop cooking, a lot of sweat, a few broken jars, and quite a few tears... but we survived. More importantly, we delivered every single jar.
That same spring, our Alphonso Mango Preserve sold out online in five minutes flat. Five minutes! Things were very much starting to happen.
2019 A Big Decision
By 2019 the kitchen was bursting at the seams, and I made what felt like a terrifying decision: with a lack of funds available to upscale my tiny jam kitchen I decided to outsource both production and distribution, allowing me to focus all my energy on sales and marketing. We launched a new website and the timing, it turned out, was everything...
2020 A Wild Ride
When the world locked down during the pandemic, we all wanted nice things arriving on our doorsteps, a treat in the middle of everything feeling very grim. Our web sales grew by over 500%. Five hundred percent! Our independent retailers didn't stop ordering either, sales grew there too as everyone started supporting their local businesses on the one allowed walk a day.
2021 Hello Bristol
Our biggest year yet, by quite some distance. I moved to Bristol with my husband Ross, who then joined the business.
Our manufacturer was struggling to keep up with our growth so we decided to set up our very own jam factory. We hired an incredible team and of course - painted the floor pink. We also had our second child, a little girl, which made it quite the year!
Getting back to making jam ourselves, in our own space, with our own team, felt amazing. It was a big leap, but the best one yet.
2022 Growing
With our own factory up and running, the opportunities kept coming. Our team grew to seven people, which felt enormous and brilliant in equal measure. We started selling to customers in the US and Canada, which still feels slightly surreal!
We also started supplying other businesses that used jam in their products: cake manufacturers, restaurants, food producers. A whole new world opened up, and we walked straight into it.
2023 High Praise
We won Best Retailer at the Bristol Life Awards, which genuinely meant the world to us. Bristol had become the home for Single Variety Co, and to be recognised by the city felt huge!
And after several years of winning individual Great Taste Awards for our products, we were also officially recognised as a Great Taste Producer
2024 More Growing!
We ran out of room. Again. The factory that had felt enormous when we first moved in was suddenly bursting at the seams, and there was only one thing for it: we extended and doubled the size of the jam kitchen.
More space. More kitchen. More jam. And the floor? Still pink of course!
2025 A Huge Win
We entered our Amalfi Lemon Marmalade into the Artisan World Marmalade Awards, held at Dalemain in Cumbria and beat over 3,000 entries from more than 30 countries, including the US, Japan, Greece and Iran, to take the top prize! Double Gold, making it...
The Best Marmalade in the World!
2026 What's Next?
Although we're ten years in it feels like we're only just getting started and we're so excited about all the potential opportunities to come. More flavours (two new ones coming very soon!), more export opportunities and the aim of getting our jams onto more restaurants menus. And no matter what, just like it's been from the beginning, our focus will always be on making the tastiest jam.
Ten years. One jar at a time. And we couldn't have done any of it without you, and we really do mean that. Thank you for buying jam, gifting jam, eating jam straight from the jar (we know, and we fully support it). Here's to whatever comes next, and hopefully another 10 years of tasty jam!
Founder, Single Variety Co
