SuperJam Blog

Jonathan Ross helps out at a tea party...

Fraser — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:49:00 +0000

Our buddies at Contact the Elderly , who run tea parties for lonely elderly people across the country, were recently featured on the telly. You can watch a video here , with Jonathan Ross helping out with one of their group's meetings.

I think that the work Contact the Elderly do is great. So great actually that we're working together right now to figure out how SuperJam can do something about loneliness among the elderly. They'll certainly be needing some good jam at their tea parties if they're entertaining the likes of Mr Ross!

To the keepers of wee shops...

Fraser — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:15:00 +0000

I get lots of emails every week from the lovely people who run independent stores up and down the country. Delicatessens, farm shops, department stores and garden centers. Until now, we've struggled to supply SuperJam to you guys in small quantities.

Thankfully, all of the SuperJam products are now available from some of the leading distributors to the independent trade, including Hider Foods and Tree of Life . If you have a wee shop, get in touch with them and pile your shelves high with the best jam there is. If you want any posters, press clippings or advice on how best to sell the products, feel free to get in touch with me and I'll do everything I can to help you out.

Let me know if you start selling the products or are already stocking them. We're going to put a search function on the site very shortly, so that people can find out who in their area is stocking SuperJam. If you are particularly quirky or do a really good job of displaying the products, send me a picture and I'll write about you on the blog.....

SuperJam's First Birthday!

Fraser — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:54:00 +0000

Hip Hip....

SuperJam launched in Waitrose on the 19th march 2007, so we're now one year old. How exciting. What an amazing first year it has been too; launching in over five hundred shops, going on a big tour around the country (rock 'n roll!), going on the news all over the world, winning seven or eight awards, being eaten by celebrities, receiving a wall covered in love letters from adoring fans....

I wonder where the next year will take SuperJam....

SuperJam on Ocado...

Fraser — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:36:00 +0000

A lot of folks have been emailing for a while asking me why Ocado wasn't stocking SuperJam. Well, like lots of other wonderful retailers (such as Budgens), they have recently starting stocking the products on their site.

Ocado is a smashing online-only supermarket and they are part owned by Waitrose, so they sell most of the goodies you can buy in the Waitrose shops.

We're doing a 2 jars for £2.50 offer in Waitrose and Ocado at the moment so fill up your cupboards!

Tea Party

Fraser — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:02:00 +0000

The other week, I was invited to a tea party held by our friends at Today Was Fun . They are a very cool and ethical tea company based in London and donate a lot of money to Contact The Elderly .

Anyway, the idea was to invite elderly people from the local area, who perhaps couldn't get out of the house much and were maybe quite lonely, round to their office for a tea party. We all ate lots of lovely cakes, drank pots of 'Friendship Tea' and had a good old chat and a laugh. Everyone went home with a 'goody bag' with a bag of tea, an Innocent smoothie and a jar of SuperJam.

I think Today Was Fun are a very good tea company and the work of Contact the Elderly is wonderful. Loneliness among the elderly of this country is an often forgotten problem and one that is close to my heart. I think tea parties like this are a great idea.

Porridge!

Fraser — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:25:00 +0000

Real men eat porridge for breakfast. I do anyway. Of course, porridge tastes great with a generous blob of SuperJam. Here's a wee video about how best to make porridge, courtesy of Jaqueline O'Donnell, chef at the award winning restaurant 'The Sisters'.

Porridge oats are also a 'super food' and you might have seen on telly recently that they help lower cholesterol. Porridge sets you up for the day. I have a chum called Tony who runs a really good organic porridge company called Stoats . Of course, he uses really good jam when he serves his bowls of hot porridge....

In fact, my buddy Pete has a business called Foodie Boxes - you can get a gift box with Stoats porridge and SuperJam in it.

The Queen of Morning Telly Eats SuperJam!

Fraser — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:40:00 +0000

Lorraine Kelly wrote in her dieting blog on The Sun website today: "I had some wholemeal toast today with that new 'SuperJam' created by a teenage entrepreneur in Scotland. He has made a range of healthy jam with no added sugar that tastes brilliant. My favourite is the rhubarb". Mine too.

Thanks Lorraine!

The adventure of 2007...

Fraser — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:38:00 +0000

Happy New Year!

Last year was quite an amazing year for SuperJam. Over the past nine or so months, SuperJam has launched in Waitrose and Tesco across the country, been the focus of a huge amount of media coverage and we've now sold the best part of a quarter of a million pots!

It has been an amazing adventure for me and I have met some very interesting people, visited other countries and been asked about my views on all kinds of things in the media. I have loved sharing my story with tens of thousands of young people at large events and, most of all, had a lot of fun playing around in my parents' kitchen with different kinds of fruit!

Anyway, BBC's 'Breakfast' show made this little video about what I have been up to over the past year...

British Library

Fraser — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:19:00 +0000

I recently gave a wee talk about setting up business, being a teenage entrepreneur and so on at the British Library. They have posted the video online here. There are also talks by a whole load of entrepreneurs like Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks and Stelios, the EasyJet chap.

Enjoy.

On The News at The Other Side of The World

Fraser — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:19:00 +0000

Last night I was amazed to find out that the SuperJam story has made it to pretty much the antipodal (furthest away) point in the world: New Zealand. The footage used by Five News and Sky News in the UK (and elsewhere in the world) was used by New Zealand's Channel 3. You can view the video here.

I've also found out that the story was covered this week on Hong Kong, Malta and in Spain. There'll also be a feature in one of the Norweigan papers in a few days so: hello to the international visitors to the site!

Strathclyde University's 'Brightest Young Business'

Fraser — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:29:00 +0000

I am a student at the University of Strathclyde (in Glasgow) and, as part of their many excellent enterprise activities, was invited to the annual 'Enterprise Awards'. There were a variety of prizes for the social entrepreneurs, spin out companies and enterprising staff of the University. There was also a 'Strathclyde Supernovas: Brightest Young Business Award', which I was delighted to be awarded.

The prize is a one week course at MIT University's Sloan Management Business School (worth over $8,000), to study Strategy. I'll be going over in June to do this and will be sure to post about it afterwards to let you know how I get on.

Enterprise Week

Fraser — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:14:00 +0000

To be honest, I've only really written this post so that I can put up this picture. It looks like I am just a head, haha.

Anyway, if you didn't know, this week was 'Enterprise Week'. This is the one week of the year where thousands of enterprise related events take place simultaneously, with the aim of encouraging young people to think about starting their own businesses or become more enterprising in their lives. As this is something that I am quite big on, I rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in with helping at various events around the country.

On Monday, I spoke to about 1,000 schoolkids from around Scotland at the annual Young Enterprise Scotland conference. This was quite a laugh and the kids were visibly enthused by my story - hopefully some of them went away thinking 'well, if he can do it then why can't I?...'

The picture at the top of the page is of me 'launching' the Biggart Baillie Innovation Awards at the Glasgow Science Centre. I gave a talk about the process of coming up with my innovation, which led to me being a winner at last years awards. If you have invented something or started an innovative business, I would urge you to check it out . There are three categories (Student, Open and Female) and a prize of £1,000 for each.

I have also been involved in the Make Your Mark Challenge , which is the biggest live enterprise event in the country and will see teams of schoolkids compete next Thursday to solve a problem that will be set on the day. This is being hosted by Heather Suttie, the Xfm DJ and I will be helping to judge the entries.

To finish off the week, I was invited to speak to students at Bath University about starting a business, juggling studies while running one and what help is out there for young entrepreneurs. That was all rounded off by a drink in the rather impressive setting of the city's famous Roman Baths.

The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards...

Fraser — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:18:00 +0000

Wow, what a week.

I don't mean for this to be another 'I got an award' post but this is a story I really have to write about. On Wednesday, I went over to Chicago to the 'Global Student Entrepreneur Awards', having been chosen to represent the UK (and the University of Strathclyde). I won't write about all the details but basically I had to give a 20 minute presentation to a bunch of very successful entrepreneurs about my business, what I wanted to achieve, my ethics and so on...

Originally, over 700 students around the world were nominated to enter the competition, then 26 were picked to go to Chicago and then they picked 6 based on the presentations. I got to present again and also watched some of the other five guys talking about their businesses and ideas. All of the 26 young entrepreneurs in the competition had incredible businesses, one of my favourites being Ten Minute Media - this guy, Brendan, makes websites for people like Mick Jagger and Natalie Cole. There was also a Swede, Erik, who made software for McDonald's.

I had never met such passionate and driven people my own age - we all shared an enthusiasm for ideas and enterprise and got on very well with oneanother.

Anyway, I ended up winning the competition and also got a special 'Social Impact' prize. It was a really cool few days and

Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award...

Fraser — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:35:00 +0000

Firstly, I've not grown a beard. I'm still as fresh faced as ever. This is a picture of James picking up 'The Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award' for me from Adrienne Lawler off the news. Sadly, I wasn't able to go along to pick it up myself since I was on my way to Chicago.

Anyway, the prize was given to me as part of the Startups Awards . There were all sorts of cool other entrepreneurs there and the Young Entrepreneur category was open to anyone under the age of 30. I was delighted to get a prize, obviously.

Thanks for picking it up Jimmy.

Every Little Helps...

Fraser — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:14:00 +0000

It isn't a very good photo but this is SuperJam on the shelves of Tesco. Britain's biggest supermarket chain started stocking the range this week, which is really very exciting.

There has been a whole heap of press coverage over the past few days, which you may have seen. I was on GMTV bright and early this morning, for example, and shared the SuperJam story with (apparently) six million viewers! I'm going to be very busy over the next few weeks so I will keep you updated. I'm visiting the following Tesco Extra stores over the coming days if you fancy popping in to say hello and having a sample of SuperJam:

Saturday 27th October: Tesco Extra Newcastle Upon Tyne
Sunday 28th October: Tesco Extra St Rollox, Glasgow (near Springburn)
Monday 29th October: Tesco Extra Perth
Tuesday 30th October: Tesco Extra Stirling

Over and out,

Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award

Fraser — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:12:00 +0000

As reported in today's Edinburgh Evening News , SuperJam has been named 'one of the country's best start-up companies' after being shortlisted in the Startups Business of The Year Awards.

I am up for the "Young Entrepreneur of The Year" category, alongside three other very interesting start-up companies. There are sixty-two companies going along to the 'awards luncheon' so I am looking forward to chatting with a wide variety of entrepreneurs about how they started their businesses.

A few of the other finalists' businesses that I think are cool are Plum Baby (a range of organic 'super foods' for babies, Boudiche (an Edinburgh lingerie boutique) and Mrs Massey's (a range of homemade sauces, chutneys and spicy rubs).

I'll let you know how I get on...

SuperJam online shop launches!

Fraser — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:17:00 +0000

Although SuperJam is availiable in all Waitrose stores across the country, we receive dozens of emails every week from people who aren't able to get their hands on our fruit spreads. As a result, we've decided to set up an online shop so that anyone in the EU can order SuperJam online for delivery within a couple of days.

We might start selling a few other products in the store that we think go well with the SuperJam ethos so feel free to suggest other small food companies whose products you love.

You can get to the shop here.

Launch of Visit Scotland Competition

Fraser — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 11:06:00 +0000

The other day, we went along to Binning Woods in East Lothian to do a photo shoot (oh, the glamour) for the 'Autumn Gold' competition that we're running with Visit Scotland. After much hilarity, we took a few nice photos showing me enjoying the Autumn scenery, walking through the forest with a pot of jam.

Feel free to enter the competition here for your chance to win a holiday at Craigatin House in Perthshire. Good Luck!

Royal Bank of Scotland

Fraser — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:35:00 +0000

For the past two days, I have been standing in the Royal Bank of Scotland's Gogarburn complex selling SuperJam to the 4,000+ people who work there.

It is a really spectacular complex, with shops, cafes, a pub and even a hairdressers inside the office block. We were invited along to a food market that they held to celebrate local food producers. SuperJam went down well and we ended up selling out completely by lunchtime today - so thanks very much to all of the RBS employees who took a pot home!

I have to say that I never thought my choice of bank would prove so controversial (I bank with 'the other' Scottish bank).

Win a Super Break in Scotland

Fraser — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:53:00 +0000

I live and work in Scotland and think it's a pretty nice wee part of the world. As such, I decided that we should run a competition on our jars, giving SuperJam fans the chance to win a holiday in the beautiful Scottish countryside. We've teamed up with our chums at VisitScotland and are offering a whole heap of prizes, such as a 2-night break at 'Craigatin House', in Perthshire.

The winners will be able to enjoy SuperJam for breakfast in luxury, while 20 runners up can have a few pots to enjoy at home.

Click here to enter the competition.

Good luck!

Buy SuperJam online.

Fraser — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:15:00 +0000

You can now get SuperJam online at The Speciality Foodstore. They sell all kinds of nice speciality foods, check it out here.

We will also be launching our own online store within the coming week or so, where you will be able to buy SuperJam if you don't live near a Waitrose or even if you live abroad. We might also sell a few other healthy and cool foods in the shop so feel free to make suggestions of what you would like to see sold alongside SuperJam.

Edinburgh Festival, Fringe Sunday

Fraser — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:49:00 +0000

Yesterday we had a stall at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the meadows. It was a pretty sunny day and everyone was out and about. We had a queue of people at the stall all day (5 hours) and sold an unbelievable amount of jam (I had to get my Dad to drive home at about lunchtime for more stock!).

The articles in this week's Edinburgh Evening News and Herald and Post probably helped - everyone seemed to know the SuperJam story.

I couldn't get a good picture at any point - the stall was surrounded by people all day until we completely ran out of jam at about 5pm and retired to the pub.

The worst jam in the world?

Fraser — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:10:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time trying other peoples' jams from around the world. Partly looking for ideas but mostly since I just love jam. Ocassionally, however, I come across a flavour of jam that doesn't really work.

This morning, I was trying the range of jams made by a German company called 'Muhlhauser'. They make all the old classics like Strawberry and Raspberry, which they didn't do a bad job of really. What really amazed me though was their 'blackcurrant and chocolate jam' ("with fine chocolate"). This was obviously the brainwave of someone in their marketing department ("chocolate spread sells well.....blackcurrant jam sells well....").

As wonderful as blackcurrant and fine chocolate sounds, it is quite inedible.

How to be a teenage millionaire.

Fraser — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:45:00 +0000

Before I start, I'm going to point out that I am not actually a millionaire. However, I have recently contributed my thoughts and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs to a book called 'how to be a teenage millionaire'. It is not a bad wee book for teenagers who are maybe thinking about whether they want to start their own business, either now or in the future.

It's on Amazon here.

Encouraging other young people to think about starting their own business is one of my big things. I've got so much out of starting SuperJam that I couldn't recommend a better way of life to other people than being an entrepreneur.

I get a couple of emails every day from teenagers who are thinking about starting up their own businesses. This is something that I love and am always more than happy to help in whatever way I can. I'm keen to hear from young people about what they think about starting their own business, what obstacles they face and what kind of businesses they would like to start.

(Photo courtesy of a recent Evening News article).

Selling jam in the rain.

Fraser — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:52:00 +0000

I just want to say that I've got a huge amount of respect for anyone who makes a living from selling things at markets.

I had a SuperJam stall at Edinburgh's 'Eating Place' market (Castle Street, 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month) the other day. It rained heavily for the entire time and, although I still managed to sell plenty of jam, it wasn't a very pleasant experience. I'll have a stall at the rest of the Eating Place markets and also at Fringe Sunday so feel free to pop along and say hello. Hopefully it'll be a bit more summery.