| Fraser Doherty |
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Superjam Superstar
Fraser Doherty is the 17-year-old entrepreneur behind SuperJam, a business which he set up from his parents’ kitchen at the age of 14. We spoke to Fraser to find out what it is that he finds so inspiring about jam…It’s difficult to imagine someone who’s more enthusiastic about jam than Fraser Doherty. Three years after setting up his own jam-making business using his gran’s secret recipe, he certainly hasn’t tired of the sticky stuff. “I love jam!” he enthuses. “I eat it four times a day.”Until recently, Fraser was spending pretty much all his waking hours making or thinking about jam. He left school with six A grades in his Highers after completing fifth year and, for the following 18 months, worked full-time on his jam-making business – 16 hours a day, seven days a week. He had good reason to believe that his business had potential. Although the company then known as Doherty’s Preserves had started small – with ingredients from Kwik Save cooked in his parents’ kitchen and sold to the neighbours – the popularity of Fraser’s jams and preserves ensured that things took off very quickly. The products were initially sold door-to-door by Fraser and his friends but, after he set up the website www.JamShop.co.uk, his preserves were featured in a tasting session on the Good Food programme and Fraser started to get orders from across the country – and even from abroad. Fraser’s success was recognised in 2004 when he won the teen category of the Enterprising Young Brit Award. After being presented with his trophy in London by Gordon Brown, the media started to take an interest in what he was up to. Articles have since been written about Fraser in newspapers including The Scotsman, The Herald, The Daily Mail and The Sun, and Channel 4 even made a television programme about him and his business. Moving on Having spent the past year and a half concentrating on SuperJam, this September Fraser started a degree in accountancy and business at Strathclyde University. So far, he’s finding the course pretty easy – he has got three years’ experience of business, after all – but he’s enjoying university and thinks it’ll prove to be a worthwhile experience. Fraser has also moved out of his parents’ place into his own flat, and is no longer using the family kitchen to make his preserves. In fact, jam-making has been on hold for a while but in the New Year he plans to rent out a factory – he’ll need it when Waitrose start stocking his jams in their 180 UK stores next year. As well as producing marmalade to gran’s secret recipe and a number of other products, the factory will also produce Fraser’s new ‘healthy jams’ which he developed last year and which use fruit juice as a sweetener instead of sugar. Once everything’s fully up and running, Fraser intends to spend three days a week on his course and the remaining four days on his business – “probably more than most people put into a full-time job.” By the end of 2007 he hopes to be selling hundreds of thousands of jars of jam a year and, although he’s currently putting more money into the business than he’s taking out of it, it should earn him more than enough to pay his way through university. The sweet smell of success Perhaps unsurprisingly, Fraser has experienced a few set-backs over the past three years. At one point he spent six months setting up one factory and getting labels designed, only to be turned down by his potential buyers. “Obviously that was a challenge, and I had to go back to the very beginning. I was under a lot of pressure and it was hard but I wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy any part of it. The fact that it’s sometimes hard makes it satisfying when I do achieve something.” This determination goes part way towards explaining why Fraser’s business has been such a success. He is prepared to put in the hours and learn as he goes along: “I’ve always been quite confident about what I’m doing,” he says. “I’ve put a huge amount of work into making sure I know everything there is to know about the jam market.” Some credit for the success of SuperJam also has to go to Fraser’s gran, without whom he might never have had the inspiration. And a few other factors have also helped in his quest for business success: the support of family and friends (who have often been roped in as willing jam-tasting ‘guinea pigs’); the advice he’s been given by other businesspeople; and his genuine passion and enthusiasm for jam. But there’s one other thing that has helped attract customers and raise the profile of Fraser’s business: the fact that he is so young. “My age opens a lot of doors in the jam industry,” he says. “A lot of people are aware of what I’m doing because it’s so unusual in an industry that’s been around for centuries and is dominated by huge companies run by grey old men. “Jam is usually associated with old women and church fetes. It’s normally seen as something quite boring, but the fact that I’m young and jumping up and down saying ‘Jam’s fun, it’s exciting, it tastes nice’ – I think that’s refreshing to a lot of people.” Food for thought Looking to the future, Fraser is constantly coming up with ideas for new businesses but the chances are that, whatever he goes into next, it will involve food. He believes there’s plenty of scope to bring out new, good quality products. “People eat a lot of rubbish food in this country and I think there’s a lot of opportunity to make it healthier and better. A lot of entrepreneurs go into the high-tech stuff these days, and there’s really not as much innovation in the classical industries like food.” So what’s Fraser’s advice to other teenagers with big business ideas? “When I told people I wanted to leave school and start selling jam, they told me I was insane. Whatever kids want to do, their teachers, parents or someone else always tells them that they should do something different. I think the important thing is to do what you want.” It certainly seems to be working for Fraser. |
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 December 2009 15:09 |
