Jam Boy

Fraser Doherty, named one of the ‘30 under 30’ entrepreneurs in the world by Inc Magazine, and ‘Global Student Entrepreneur’ is one of the UK’s most successful young entrepreneurs. Fraser started his company, SuperJam, at just 14 in his Gran’s tiny kitchen in Scotland and has grown it into an iconic brand and a phenomenally successful company. Now, at just 22 Fraser has written his first business book SuperBusiness in which he takes readers through his story and relays everything he has learnt about starting your own business and making it a success.



You started your business venture at the tender age of 14, can you explain to our readers what motivated you to create your own jam recipe?
I have always loved jam, ever since I was a little kid; especially my Gran’s jam. One afternoon, when I was fourteen, I was visiting my Gran and she was making jam in her kitchen in Glasgow, in the same way as she had for as long as I can remember.

I got really excited about it and asked my Gran to teach me how to make jam. We spent that afternoon making a few pots of jam together then, the same day, I ran round to the supermarket and bought some fruit and made a few jars of my own. Before they’d even cooled down, I took them round the neighbourhood and asked all the neighbours what they thought of my homemade jam. Thankfully, the neighbours enjoyed my first few jars of jam and asked if they could start buying it from me every couple of weeks.

From those humble beginnings my jam business started!

You concentrated on localised distribution in the early stages... how did this strategy help you learn about the product supply chain?
In the early days, I was literally selling my homemade jam door to door, knocking on people’s doors and asking them if they’d like to try a jar for free. People would give me all kinds of feedback – they’d say they didn’t eat jam because they were diabetic or maybe they’d give me one of their own recipes to try out. Being so close to the customers, I understood what is was that people liked and didn’t like about jam. When I started selling to shops, I quickly learned what was important to them – reliable supply, promotion and a pipeline of new products, so there’s always something new to talk to their customers about.

You frequently mention your Granny and her kitchen, how influential was she to you and what lessons did you learn from her?
My Gran has had a massive impact on my life; not only did she teach me how to make jam in the first place but she also inspired the work that I do with the elderly. When I was a kid, my Gran would make jam and scones and visit all the elderly people in her area for afternoon tea. They were maybe living on their own or in care. My Gran would drag my brother and I with her; he’d play his guitar for them and I’d tell them stories. It was kinda something we were always brought up with and that my Gran felt very strongly about, so I thought it would be nice to do something like that on a bigger scale…

What was your motivation? Did you have the belief that the products would become as successful as they were?
There is no way that when I was fourteen I could have imagined that an idea from such humble beginnings could grow into a company supplying Waitrose, Wal-Mart and other massive retailers around the world. As things grew, I became more and more ambitious for my ideas and soon discovered that there was a massive appetite for the idea of jam made 100% from fruit.
How supportive were your family?
My parents have always encouraged my brother and I to do what makes us happy in life. For me, that meant being able to make jam every day. They never imagined in a million years that I would make a career out of selling jam but, thankfully, they didn’t try to stop me from giving it a shot.

How did you come up with the name 'SuperJam'? How important is choosing the right brand name for a product?
The branding of any product is hugely important. No matter how tasty the jam in the jar is, people wouldn’t take SuperJam off the shelves in the first place if the jar didn’t convince them to.

The whole idea of SuperJam is that we are turning jam on its head; jam is usually 70 or 80% sugar. SuperJam is 100% fruit and all natural. All the other brands of jam on the supermarket shelves have family names or look like they’ve been around for a hundred years –
I wanted to come up with a brand that was so much more fun and modern, that really stood out in contrast with the boring old brands on the shelves.

You managed to get your products stocked by high end supermarkets such as Waitrose, how challenging was this for you and what tips would you give our readers for when they approach product buyers?
I had the opportunity to pitch SuperJam to Waitrose when I was around 17. They were having one of their many ‘Meet The Buyer Days’, which I like to describe as the ‘X-Factor’ of selling groceries to supermarkets. Waitrose, like any big retailer, is looking for a product that their customers are going to want to buy – so the most important thing to do is to convince the buyer that your product is really what people want. You’re also going to need to tell them what you plan on doing to get your name out there and how you’re going to convince people to give your product a shot.

How did you fund your venture initially and what model did you use to expand the growth of your venture?
Because I started SuperJam on such a small scale at the start, I was able to try out my ideas and get a business off the ground without having to raise any kind of finance. I strongly recommend that people start small; don’t re-mortgage your house for your business idea!

As things took off, I got a loan for £5000 from the Princes Trust, to help get things ready for the launch in Waitrose. I was also able to convince designers to work with me really cheaply and managed to get long credit terms from my suppliers – all of that meant that I didn’t have to borrow money from the bank or take on investment. I think my story shows that all you need is an idea – don’t worry if you don’t have money or experience. You can find people along the way who do.

Why did you decide to concentrate solely on the jam market and not diversify to other food products? What are the dangers of diversifying too quickly?
There’s a lot to be said for focusing on one idea; the clearer you are about what you’re all about, the easier it is to get other people to believe in your vision. SuperJam wants to become the best loved jam company in the world. Maybe that will mean selling other products along the way, like marmalade or peanut butter, but I think there’s something really powerful about just trying to be the best you can be at one thing.

How important are quality control measures and what procedures do you have in place? When you’re selling a food product, the legislation is very tight for hygiene and labelling. It is also really important that every jar that goes out the door tastes the best it can – if someone gets excited about SuperJam, buys a jar and then it isn’t up to scratch, we’ve lost that person for life. It is unlikely they’ll ever try it again, which means it is really important that we have a very thorough process at the factory to stop anything going wrong.

Are there any plans to distribute the product into other markets? How well do you think that they will be received abroad?
What has amazed me is the speed at which the SuperJam story has travelled. I’ve been on chat shows in China, in newspapers in Brazil and the SuperJam story is taught to schoolkids in Russia! Because of all of that media coverage, retailers all around the world have been getting in touch. We are launching in some of the biggest retailers in the US, Canada and Australia later this year, which is incredible. People eat jam all over the world!

What is the marketing strategy for SuperJam? How useful has it been for you to have had such a prominent spotlight in the media?
I think any brand should have one message – one reason anyone should buy your product. You should put all of your energy into just getting that message across; in SuperJam’s case that message is ‘100% fruit’. We promote the brand by employing people to stand in supermarket stores, handing out samples and telling people about the products. I think the best way to get our message across is to simply let people taste how great SuperJam tastes!

How did you cope with all the attention of being a young, successful entrepreneur?
I love sharing my story with people – it is wonderful that people are so interested in what has happened to SuperJam. I love getting emails from people all over the world saying that they read about my story and have since started selling cakes or sauce or some other thing, that feels pretty amazing. My story shows people that what can start as a simple idea really can grow and grow into a life changing adventure.

Do you have any regrets or may be things that you would have done different with the benefit of hindsight?
We originally had an idea to design the SuperJam branding in a comic book theme. There’s a link between SuperMan and SuperJam, or so we thought. The labels ended up being really colourful, quite wacky and hilariously funny. My friends loved them. But, when I pitched them to Waitrose, I was told they were a bit silly. I realised that, all along, we should have had a really clear picture of who we were trying to communicate with and what we were trying to say. All we had to say was ‘100% fruit’ and we had to say it in a way that appealed to adults.

How did the recession affect your business?
As a premium brand of jam, selling for £1.50, when you can buy a jar of regular jam for £1, there is of course a concern that people might start buying cheaper jam to, understandably, save money. So, over the past few years, while consumers have been having a hard time financially, we’ve invested in a lot of money off promotions in the supermarkets and also printed about fifty million money off coupons in newspapers and magazines. We even gave away a free jar with every copy of The Sun last year!

Because I wasn’t afraid to invest in the brand during the recession, I think that all of those people who tried SuperJam for free or at a reduced price, will stick with the brand when times are good.

What measures do you think that food retailers should introduce during these difficult financial times?
The supermarkets are really great at responding to what people want. At a time like this, people want lower prices and that is a major priority for all of the buyers I deal with. They want to offer people value for money and the challenge for a food brand is to figure out how to do that without compromising your products.

How do keep a work life balance?
I love what I do so much that I don’t really think of it as work, even though I have to devote very long hours to it. Having said that, I do take time out to holiday and at the weekends I enjoy taking my 40 year old VW camper van, called ‘Valerie’, into the countryside to chill out.

Who do you most admire?
I am really inspired by the stories of entrepreneurs like Anita Roddick of The Body Shop and Ben & Jerry of the ice cream company. I love the idea that a business can be about so much more than just selling bottles of soap or tubs of ice cream. It can be a means to protest about issues that you feel strongly about in society. Who says an ice cream can’t protest about the war or a soap company can’t champion animal rights?

How did SuperJam embrace the social networking phenomena and did it benefit your business?
I love the idea that the web makes it possible for SuperJam to have a conversation with the people buying our products. Social media makes it so easy to ask people what they think of a new idea we have and it is a great way of getting people involved in shaping the brand. One idea we tried out was to ask all of the people buying our products to suggest stores in their area that they thought should be selling SuperJam. That was a really simple idea but we’ve had literally thousands of suggestions and, by asking our customers to help us, SuperJam has grown as a result.

What are the future plans for SuperJam?
As well as launching in other countries, we are working on some amazing new products. A couple of weeks ago, I had my debut show on QVC, the home shopping channel. It was quite a surreal moment, not somewhere I would ever have dreamed of finding myself when I started making jam at fourteen. There are all kinds of amazing things happening and it really is an adventure for me.

In this young entrepreneurs edition, do you feel there is enough support for young people to set up a business?
I’ve been amazed by the amount of support there is for young people who want to start their own business. In my experience, the Princes Trust were a wonderful source of advice and finance.

The best help and support I had was from having a mentor; a guy called Kevin. He had set up a successful business supplying supermarkets and was just willing to spend a bit of time sharing with me some of the lessons that he had learned. My advice to anyone starting a business would be to find someone who has been there and done it before, who is willing to share their lessons with you.

What 3 things would you change about the policy towards small businesses in the UK?
I’m not very political.

Your book SuperBusiness has just published and is WHSmith's Business Book of the Month. What made you want to write the book and what will readers get from it?
In a sense, SuperJam has come of age. We’ve sold millions of jars, been entered into the National Museum as an ‘Iconic Scottish Brand’, won over 20 awards and I have been invited to Downing Street for dinner and shared the front page of The Sun with Susan Boyle!

I wanted to write a book that shared all of the lessons I have learned in coming up with my idea, getting people to believe in it and building it into a successful business.

I guess that what my story shows is that what can begin for anyone as a hobby or as a simple idea in their kitchen, bedroom or garage, with a bit of hard work and imagination, can grow into something amazing. Something that changes your life; I know that SuperJam has certainly changed mine. Something that gives you a career and maybe an opportunity to give back to your adventure. Above all, I wanted to encourage other people to start their adventure.

SuperBusiness: How I Started SuperJam from my Gran’s Kitchen Table (Capstone, £12.99) is available online and from all good bookshops