Jam, Grit & Growth: Building Single Variety Co with Nicola Elliott

0:14What if saying no to the supermarket shelf was actually the best growth strategy? Hello and welcome to the Tomorrow Brands podcast, where we explore what it takes to build a brand of tomorrow. I'm your host, Ruth Vitock, and today I'm speaking with Nicola Elliott, founder of Single Variety Co, a multi-award winning jam brand that's rewriting the rules of category building. Let's get into it. Thanks so much for joining us. Could you let us know your background and how you got to where you are now? So I love food and I went to study food science at university. Didn't know what kind of job that would lead to, but found my first job out of university working for Northern Foods as a food technologist.

0:51Realised I loved more the developing of food, so went to Sainsbury's on the graduate scheme as a product developer. And I was there for about four and a half years, found a real interest in the commercial side. So I moved to Selfridges as a food buyer. And my job there was basically to find new food products and launch them. I loved the job. I loved meeting people who would like quit everything to start a food brand. And that was where I really started to get a desire to do it for myself. But it took me a little bit longer. So I went after Selfridges, went back into retail, went to work for Waitrose back in product development, and then went to work for a small salad bar chain in London.

1:27But I'd always been thinking all that time, what was the food business I could launch? Didn't ever come up with a perfect idea, but myself and my then boyfriend, Ross, went to Sri Lanka on holiday, had the most incredible jams for breakfast. This passion fruit jam was so good. And I, yeah, it just got me thinking maybe jam could be the one. So came home, started making jam at home, recreated the passion fruit jam, lots of other flavours as well, booked myself into a farmer's market. And yeah, that is where the business started 10 years ago this year. 10 years ago. Congratulations. I can't believe it's been that long.

2:08Single variety jams. Yes. Interesting with your journey because obviously you've worked within the supermarket system, but when it came to launching your own brand, You made an active decision to avoid that. Can you tell us why? Yeah. So when I was at Sainsbury's, I worked within bakery and I was developing all of the own label cake range. And whilst I loved the job, I got very frustrated because everything was very price driven. So I was very restricted with the products I could develop. And I wasn't truly proud of them because price came first. So my buyer always had a bit of a running joke with me that she couldn't sell a cake for over a pound.

2:49Bear in mind, this is well over 10 years ago. So the prices have definitely gone up. But back then, if anything costed out over a pound, we couldn't sell it. So I was really restricted. And it meant that my cakes maybe didn't have as much chocolate in as I would like, or we weren't using butter, we were using cheaper ingredients. And that's why I just didn't even consider developing a supermarket brand. I've been there, done that. And I just wanted to develop a product that I was really proud of. And that meant at the beginning, just forgetting about price and just developing great tasting jams.

3:19So without grocery, how did you approach growth instead? I started off literally making jam at home and booked my first farmer's market. And I remember the night before the market still labelling up frantically these jams. And I got there and I thought, oh my gosh, what if no one buys the jam? And that first customer, I still remember her. It was so exciting. and yeah by the end of that market I'd sold over 100 jars and I realized you know what this is this is going to work so for the first two years purely just selling at farmers markets and then starting to do a little bit of wholesale into local independence but I was really looking at where can I sell the products that aren't the supermarkets and for me it's all the independent shops there's definitely an appetite for customers who want great quality products and are happier to pay more for them and understand why they cost a little bit more than a jam would be in the supermarkets so yeah naturally the business has just evolved as we've discovered new avenues to sell the jam d to c you've been some rapid growth even though you've been out for 10 years yeah in there yes so let's give you a brief like from the beginning to now for the business so first two years were mainly farmers markets every weekend making all week and then starting to get into a few independent shops, mainly people that saw us at the markets who owned shops and said, I'd love to stock your product.

4:45We've never actually had any sales people work for us in the business. So all of our sales have been organic. Then I started to do a few trade shows. So start to get listed with distributors who then were selling into some of the kind of larger farm shops. And I always had a website, but it was about three years in, I think that I decided to redevelop it and focus a little bit online. And back then my aim was to get about 10 % of our total sales online, but then COVID came and obviously COVID changed everything. And yeah, during COVID, like everyone, we just saw such a rapid growth of our online business and I really capitalized on it.

5:24So I took a course in online advertising, Facebook ads, and just pushed our online growth as much as I can as much as I could for that year so that was when we started to find our customers or our customers start to find us so the online side of our business now is about 60 percent of our total sales it's actually a little bit higher than we'd like we'd ideally like it to be 50 percent but it's been where we've been it's been where we've been putting our focus for the last few years because I love the online that's amazing no sales people in the business is that no sales people at all no we're actually about to hire our first salesperson which is very exciting but yeah all of our like generally most of our wholesale shops have come to us we find nowadays a lot of people find us through social media we get a lot of instagram messages from independent shops that want to stock us we've done a few trade shows don't tend to do them so much anymore but some of the bigger trade shows were great in getting us distribution into some of the fine food distributors and then online it's been a lot of online advertising to grow and then yeah really pushing that through email marketing.

6:30So you now run your own jam factory. So you started at home, you've now got your own factory. Why did you bring manufacturing in the house? When did you take the leap and what gave you the confidence to do that? I started at home and then about three months in, we'd literally just moved into our first flat together, me and Ross, and I filled it full of jam. And he said to me, I think you're at the point where you need to find a little kitchen. So I started off renting kitchens by the day and then got space in a shared kitchen. And then about six months into the business, I took on the lease into a very tiny kitchen where we were still making jam light in a pan, as you would at home, 25 jars at a time.

7:10Then after about a year or so, that's when I did the first trade show. And I started to realize, actually, it was a customer from Germany. He came up to me at the trade show and he pointed to the jams. He said, I love them. Can you make 8 ,000 jars? Waited for a second and then obviously said yes. But at that point, our biggest order had been for 100 jars. So it was quite a big, quite a big growth. But obviously I said yes. The order went through and then I had two months to make 8 ,000 jars at 25 jars at a time in a pan, which was crazy looking back. So we worked. At that point, I had three team members I think working for me all part-time took on some extra help and literally handmade these jars 8 ,000 jars went to Germany worked out I didn't make any money on it at all because it was so labor intensive we were literally like hand labeling everything and I was if this is gonna if we're gonna make a thing of this business I need to figure out a better way to make the jam and back then I was living in London and as you can imagine finding a commercial space in London is incredibly expensive.

8:18So at that point, I made the difficult decision to outsource our production, which I never wanted to do. I never, ever wanted to outsource our production. I always wanted to make it in-house. But we did find an amazing co-manufacturer, another family run jam business. And I went to visit them. And from the beginning, I was like, I know I can trust these guys with my jam. So I outsourced our jam production for about two years, but I went to every single production. It was really important for me that the quality was always as high as it was when I was making literally 25 jars at a time. But after two years, we got to the point where he wasn't able to fulfill the orders at a speed I'd like, but also he didn't want to do anything complicated.

8:58So at that point, what started to become really popular was our seasonal flavors. So we've got a range of core 10 flavors that we make all year round. And then we do seasonal jam flavors things like a hard bean jivouy bar preserve or alfonso mango preserve so these are jams where we literally get in the fresh fruit and we hand prep it and we turn it into jam it's very labor intensive and our co-manufacturer just didn't want to do it which i completely understand because it's really hard work so at that point me and ross were moving to bristol we just had our first baby and i said to ross we were just married i think and i said i want to bring all the manufacturing back in house.

9:38Do you want to set up a jam factory with me? And he said, yes. Do you know the crazy thing? I looked on our website and it tells you where your customers are buying your jam from. Number one city was London, but the number two city was Bristol. And I had never done any sales or any targeting for Bristol. It just naturally was the number two city for our customers. So as soon as I saw that, it was a sign. I was like, we are setting up this jam factory. Yeah. And here we are. We've had the jam factory now for five years and the business is 10 years old. What do people misunderstand about owning your own production?

10:12I think a lot of people having food businesses don't even think it's an option possibly, just automatically think they have to outsource or go too fast too quickly. So for us, we've started off very small and then we've grown steadily. And if we'd have tried to set up this jam factory in the early days, it wouldn't have worked because it's too expensive. And that's the other thing I think people don't realize it's incredibly expensive to set up a food factory you've got to make sure you've got the volumes and the business already behind you before you do it and I'd say always double what you think it's going to cost because it always costs double what you think is my experience and what does what how has the team had to change or grow from owning your own production you mentioned no sales people you've done a lot of the DTC yourself what does your team look like now so our team is still really small so we've got obviously the manufacturing team so within the manufacturing team we've got our factory manager and then we've got how many of us are there there's 13 of us in total that includes the manufacturing team and the office team but from the very beginning we knew we wanted the factory to run itself without myself or ross being there we actually found out we were about to have our second baby when we were about to sign the lease for the building and we did have a minute's thought as to are we absolutely crazy having a second baby and opening a jam factory but when you've got a dream you just got to go and do it but it meant we had to get a team in place from the very beginning who could make sure the jam was being made and the orders were going out without me and Ross being there so yeah the factory we say runs itself Chris our factory manager is amazing he's been with us since the beginning we literally interviewed him in an empty building on picnic chairs and in fact he didn't run away says it all so yeah he's going to factory with us and then we've got an amazing jam team jam chefs and order packers who make sure everything is made to the best quality and get it out the door to our customers every single day and then in our office team it's really small i look after all of the marketing the direct consumer side of things ross then looks after more of the wholesale sales we've recently taken on an office assistant to help with all of our customer service queries and the finance manager who works one day a week and then we have a part-time content creator as well.

12:27So let's talk a bit about brand. Jams, Preserves is a pretty traditional category. How does single variety work within that? So when I started the brand I knew I needed to have a USP so I looked at all the other premium jam brands out there and back then 10 years ago people were making jam premium by adding like champagne or herbs or spices and nobody was making just great quality jam and that's what I wanted us to be known for and the single variety aspect is that we find the tastiest varieties for each of our jams so we don't mix any flavors so you know that when you come to single variety co our strawberry jam is the best tasting strawberry jam that you'll ever find and that's how we work and yeah we've got our core flavors but then our seasonal flavors are the ones that have really taken off.

13:16So I think it's because you can't get them elsewhere. So our Harbinger Rhubarb Preserve will get the rhubarb directly from a fourth generation rhubarb farmer in Yorkshire. Hand prep it, make it into jam. It's so delicious. It's great on yoghurt. And at Alfonso Mango Preserve, we make in the summer using Alfonso mangoes. They are the best mangoes you can find. They're incredibly expensive, but the jam is absolutely worth it. your marmalade just won a world's award yes congratulations yeah thank you how do accolades like that impact the brand story our amalfi lemon marmalade won best marmalade in the world which was just incredible so it's at the marmalade awards they've been going for over 20 years i think this year and i first entered back literally when i started the business with at Seville marmalades and won a gold, which was incredible.

14:14And that was another reason that I thought I can make this business a go because it's judged by marmalade experts. So they taste, I think over three and a half thousand marmalades every year. And they look for things like the flavor, the set, the way the peel is cut. And they're so like specific with what they're looking for. So for them to name back in the beginning, my Seville marmalade great quality really gave me kind of confidence that I was making great products but then to win the very top award last year for our Amalfi Lemon Marmalade just said yeah we're doing the right thing and the fact that we've managed to scale up production on a product like that and still be selected as the best in the world says we're doing the right thing we are doing all the hard work we're getting those Amalfi Lemons in from Italy fresh we're hand chopping them we're making our marmalade exactly as you would at home and now we can really shout about it because we've got the proof behind us that it is the best in the world.

15:09Amazing. Starting to look ahead to the future. What trends are you seeing that excite or worry you as a founder? So for us within jam, we're seeing it less used as like a morning toast, but more on menus, more in meals. And then we also supply to some burger restaurants. So it's really exciting to see our jams being used in different occasions. We've got a passion fruit jam that is used by a hotel for afternoon tea, which just makes the traditional afternoon tea more modern with the passion fruit preserve. So that's really exciting for us. Anything ahead that's worrying you more generally on the business outlook?

15:49Obviously, the constant kind of increase in costs of everything. And then the main thing for us within jam is the EPR, the glass tax. So we're at a point where we're very close to the two million turnover in which we're going to have to start paying the EPR tax. And that is going to really, yeah, it's going to be a lot of money for us to pay. And bigger brands obviously selling a lot more products in glass jars is really going to hit them. And it's really concerning because a lot of brands have moved from plastic to glass, but now we're finding they're going to have to pay higher taxes to pay the glass than they are with plastic.

16:26So it's all, yeah, it's all very confusing and all quite concerning at the moment. It's so tricky isn't it like you say because so many brands switch. Yeah. It's crazy. What does scaling look like from here for you? More D2C, food service, starting to look international? Yeah so as I said we are about to take on our first salesperson which is very exciting and we are going to look at focusing within food service. we've already started to get our jams into menus into also cake manufacturers using it into their cakes but we want to push that a bit more we see it as a massive opportunity because once when we've done some research into the jam that's used currently in hospitality it's shocking you couldn't actually call a lot of the jam that's used in hospitality jam if you were selling it in retail because there's so little fruit in it and it's just full of like glucose fructose syrup and colour and flavourings or because they're not using real fruits.

17:26And yeah, we think there's a big opportunity for the premium hospitality. Have you changed your mind on grocery? No. No. So because the business has been growing through the independence, we're stocked in, I don't know the number now, but hundreds of independent shops all over the UK. If I was suddenly to take a switch and move into the big supermarkets, that would kill that business that I've spent 10 years building up because if an independent shop sees your product in the supermarket at say half the price they're not going to stop you anymore so some of our shops have been buying since the very beginning since 10 years ago when I started selling at the farmers markets and they've been so supportive to us and I would never never yeah I'd never change the business model to go in the top top five supermarkets because a it would mean changing the quality of the product because no one's going to spend six for a jar of jam in the supermarket.

18:20So the only way to do that would be to reduce the price, reduce the fruit content, and then it wouldn't be the best tasting jam. Yeah. So no aims at the moment to go into the big supermarkets. Do you think brands overlook the power of independence and the independent channel? Yeah, a hundred percent. And not to brands, everybody. So whenever I tell somebody that I'm meeting for the first time, whenever I tell them I've got a jam business. The first thing they say is, oh, so you want to get into the supermarkets? And it's quite frustrating because I'm like, no, that is not a sign for me personally of success because our customers aren't necessarily shopping for premium jam within the supermarkets, but everyone just so blindly thinks the supermarket is the only way that you can build a successful food business.

19:07And it's absolutely not. If you want to have a successful food business in the supermarket you need to spend so much money and it's quite high risk whereas the way that we've grown the business we've grown it slowly like sustainably kind of step by step but it means I think our business is on really good foundations for the long-term yeah future of our business yeah and I guess with the big four supermarkets you've got four gatekeepers four decision makers there whereas you've got hundreds of individuals yeah like tens of thousands of individual customers shopping online with us every single year.

19:43We've got hundreds of independent shops all buying direct from us. We've then got our distributors. We always talk about having our eggs in lots of baskets because no one part of our business is too big so that if they were to suddenly stop buying jam, we've still got a business. Not every 80 ,000 of our online customers aren't all suddenly going to stop buying jam tomorrow. Whereas if you're supplying to the supermarket you might be in two supermarkets but if one decides they're going to delist you then you've really got to work really hard to try and find that business elsewhere so we've purposefully made sure we've got lots of different kind of revenue streams for the jam business yeah smart so a lot of people running brands working in brands are constantly thinking about what comes next so whether that be new markets new products line extensions formats what's your decision making filter?

20:37So I am very strict with our core range. So we've got 10 core flavours that we make all year round, three chilli jams, five fruit preserves and three marmalades. And then we've got our seasonal flavours that come in and out, something like a harbinger rhubarb, which will be available between January and say March time. We've got pineapple preserve, which we make in the summer and some of the seasonal flavors we have available for say two to three months at a time others are surely will sell out within a week alphonse mango preserve we physically can't make any more and once it's gone so that will sell out normally within say two to three weeks so in terms of decision i'm very strict we won't bring any more products into the range permanently all year round because we having 10 flavors keeps us really lean in the factory it It means we're not holding too much stock.

21:31We've not got too many ingredients coming in and out. Our cash isn't tied up in too many places, too many different products. It's really simple. My husband, Ross, always wants to bring more chili jams in. And I just constantly say to him, no, I'm really sorry. We can't. We're very strict. But with our seasonal flavors, we're able to bring in and out the new flavors. So we, at the moment, have about 12. We have one that we try and bring out every single month. But there's more that we want to do. So yeah, that is a challenge because our customers are constantly asking for more flavors. things like mulberry jam or my loganberry jam because now once our customers find us they know that we make all the more interesting flavor jams and i'd want to make more but it's the challenge fitting them in well my grandma had a mulberry tree in her garden so i grew up mulberry jam i've never seen oh gosh no it's the one i just i'm constantly trying to find mulberries and I just haven't yet found any.

22:25So yeah, where's that tree? I'll go and pick them. Business has been running for 10 years. Imagine it's been a bit of a roller coaster as these things are. Very much. What's been the hardest chapter of the journey so far? Every year has been different and every year has been like almost starting a new business again. But obviously when we set up the jam factory, so when we moved all of our production in-house five years ago that was probably the hardest part we have obviously never set up a food factory before it's such a huge learning curve in terms of discovering that I needed an air compressor I didn't even know what an air compressor was but you need one to run your labeling machine so much to learn from a like manufacturing point of view but also at that point we had a little baby I think he was six months old I was pregnant with our second so trying to juggle setting up in essence a new business with having a little baby was very tough and for me personally I've got so many ideas and I want to do so much with the business but I had to really learn to take a step back and I don't need to rush and I don't need to do everything wrong and actually doing things slowly but considered which I was forced to do having my children means that we are building like a much stronger more sustainable business for the long term so it was very tough at the time I used to bring all of my babies have come to work with me in the jam factory from literally a few weeks old I've got fond memories of them being sat there next to me on the desk but yeah it's me meant I haven't been able to rush this business it's growing nice and slowly but it's growing every single year and oh gosh once all my children are at school I'm gonna have so much time to do all the things but all the ideas that I've got so you're a mum of three now yes anyone with kids is aware of the challenges associated with balancing yes do you think it's a juggle do you think there are any ways that motherhood has made you better at business yeah definitely So my friend, I remember her telling me when she had her little boy, which was a few years before me, she came to work with me for a few years, helping me out with all the, well, helping me out with everything really.

24:43But she said being a mum made her so much more efficient because you literally, as soon as you get to work, you've got a very considered time in which your child is in childcare or school or whatever. And that's when you've got to get your work done. There's no option to stay late. And yeah, 100 % agree with that. I'm so efficient now. there's no kind of like chatting around if if I've got work to be done the work needs to be done and Ross says sometimes I can be a little bit cold you get cold callers I just don't have any time for anyone who's trying to waste my time my focus is the business so I can run the business and then get home to my family and yeah it works ruthless prioritization I like it yes definitely when I went back to my first job after maternity leave my boss said it had made me better at my job and it was such a amazing thing yeah because I think you worry don't you I think it's a really like strong and positive message for people who aren't there yet that yes it makes it trickier in the juggle but actually you and you have to focus I then have to focus my time and I can't do everything so it means I have to think about okay where is my idea where is my time best spent?

25:54Is it developing this product or is it going out and meeting these customers? It means everything I have to consider and put my energy where it's best spent for the business. But on the plus side as well, it means I'm completely in control of my time. So I can pick up my children from school every day. I can go to these little concerts and it really gives us that flexibility. And back when I was thinking about starting the business, it was definitely in the back of my mind that I wanted to have the flexibility and be in control of work so that I could then spend the family time that I wanted to spend with them.

26:27Yeah and I think everyone could do with focusing right focus on the things that actually move the needler that's a really great skill to have doesn't matter of the reason. Yeah definitely. What kind of support do you lean on most? Our life is basically business and family all blended together so between the two of us we work out who's working each day, who's looking after the children each day, who's picking them up. At some points it's difficult because we're both part of the business and we're completely reliant on the business for our family income. Whereas if one of us had a job, then that would take a little bit of the pressure off.

27:03But on the other hand, it means we both completely know, yeah, we're working together for our joint family's future. And who knows, one day maybe the children will take over the business and want to run a jam factory too. Who knows? how do you guys switch off from work given it is like the family business yeah that's quite difficult we went out for dinner the other night we don't obviously get out very often and halfway through the conversation we obviously start talking about work but you know what we love it and some of our best ideas come from when we are just out for drinks or dinner because that's when we're away from being deep into the business it's when we can start to think about ideas but the children definitely help us switch off and work because when we're with them they don't give us chance to think about work yeah it's a big blended work-life balance for us but I don't think we'd have it any other way if you could go back to year one Nicola what would you say I would say keep going definitely do it because having this business will give you the opportunity to have the work-life balance that you want but you will like oh honestly at the beginning some of those kitchens that I rented were so horrible I remember this kitchen in Croydon in an industrial estate and it was an old ready-meal factory and I rented it out by the hour and it was dark it was dingy I went I was all on my own making jam in the corner and I hated it so much but I went because it was cheap and I needed to make the jam and every time I went to this kitchen, I said to myself, one day I'll have my own jam factory.

28:40One day I'll have a beautiful light welcoming factory as opposed to this horrible one that I was going to. And yeah, and we're here. So I say to myself, you made it. You got that factory that you dreamed of and it was really worth it. Yeah. To put in all that hard work in the early days. It does. Yeah. The dream does come true. Hard work pays off. Yeah, it does. I'm going to do some quick fire questions now Worst jam pun you've ever heard Do you know what? Like people don't actually say them to me that much Like I was thinking I get so many cold emails But if some of those emails actually have some jam puns in I might respond to them Because I automatically assume that every cold email is a bot And I just delete Yeah hit me with some jam puns Prove you're human Yeah exactly The terrible pun, the worse, the better.

29:34Yeah. One thing you'll never compromise on, even if it costs you? It's got to be taste. It's got to be quality. So we will never make, we will never sell a jam that isn't up to our quality. If it doesn't taste as good as it should, it isn't going out the door. So we taste every batch of jam that we make to make sure it's up to the quality we want it to be. And if it's not, we don't sell it. What's your founder superpower? it's a joke in the team it's my forecasting so I love a spreadsheet and I spend a lot of time forecasting because I want the lead up Christmas is our busiest time of year but every every seasonal every seasonal product we make we have to decide how many jars to make and it's different for every gam and so every seasonal flavor I'll forecast how many jars I want the factory to make and then I will go away and sell them through all of the online marketing and through our wholesalers.

30:34And it is scarily accurate. Like I think my forecast for November, Black Friday week, was about£700 out from what we actually took, which is bonkers. And sometimes I wonder whether I should just forecast more and then we'll make more. But I don't think it's quite that simple. but I guess that's just 10 years of knowing the business inside out. Favourite unexpected jam pairing? Do you know what it is? It's jalapeno jam and eggs because I would never have dreamed when I started the business that's how jalapeno jam would be used but back in the very very early days when I was doing the farmer's markets I one of the questions we got asked all the time when I was standing at the stall people would say what do I do with the chilli jams so I'd always say with cheese and then I started to ask repeat customers what they were doing with the chili jams and so many people were saying oh I have the jalapeno jam with eggs so I went away and tried it and it's so good yeah jalapeno jam spread on some soldiers dipped in a dippy egg it's the best customer always knows yeah exactly it's great as well to hear them tell me back how they use the jams because they were coming up with ways that I wouldn't have even thought of proudest no so far Probably just the supermarket.

31:54So I think we've said no to Sainsbury's, Morrison's and Asda. I think they've all approached us in the past. And yeah, it's always been a no. One small thing that brings you joy in your day? I think it's got to be my little girls every morning asking for raspberry jam on their yoghurt without fail. And then I get told off when we run out and I get told I have to bring more back from the jam factory. but just to see them enjoying the jams is really special. And finally, a question we ask every guest, in your opinion, what's the brand of Tomorrow? Oh, so I think it's a brand that is doing their own thing in their own way and not just blindly following what other brands do.

32:37Thanks so much for coming on, Nicola. Thank you so much for having me. Hope you enjoyed this episode of the Tomorrow Brands podcast. If you did, I'd love it if you could rate or leave a quick review. It really helps other people find the show. and if you're curious for more, check out the other episodes. We've had some brilliant founders and operators share their stories. Thanks for listening and see you next time.