PADDINGTON

Almost everyone knows that Paddington is a bear who usually wears a duffle coat, a rather shapeless hat and, on occasions, Wellington boots.

Many people also know that his favourite food is marmalade and that he originally comes from Darkest Peru.

His first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published in 1958 by William Collins & Sons (now Harper Collins Publishers). At the time, Michael Bond was working as a television cameraman for the BBC.

In 1997 Michael Bond was awarded an OBE for his services to children’s literature.

MACKAYS

Mackays dates back to 1938, when the company was founded by the Mackay brothers.

From humble beginnings, Mackays is now the only remaining producer of the original Dundee Orange Marmalade, in the Dundee Region of Scotland.

Considered to be the home of Marmalade, Dundee’s affiliation with the product dates back to the late 1700s when the Keiller family purchased a ship load of Seville oranges which were too bitter to eat. So not to waste the goods, Mrs Keiller boiled the oranges with sugar and created the original Dundee Orange Marmalade in her kitchen. From thereon, the Keiller’s founded the first Marmalade factory in Dundee in 1797.

The traditional manufacturing methods are continued today, with Mackays being one of the few remaining producers using traditional copper bottomed open pans. This time honoured cooking method allows the rich fruit flavours to fully develop, creating a superior quality product. Currently the company produces a range of 9 different marmalades.

In 2004, the company was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise, in the International Trade category, for exceptional contribution growth within overseas markets. To date, the company exports to over 40 countries worldwide, including the USA, Canada, mainland Europe, Japan and Scandinavia.

In 1995, the company was bought over by Paul Grant MBE and now employs over 130 people from the local community.

JAM JAR SHOP

Jam Jar Shop brings you all the choice of glass jam jars, sauce bottles, oil bottles, preserving jars, swing top bottles and jam-making equipment available to the commercial producers, in manageable quantities. They have everything from 1 1/2oz jars for individual portions to 1/2 gallon jars ideal for pickled onions or pickled eggs. Oil bottles from Italy - perfect for packaging gift items, smaller bottles for sauces or fruit vinegars and the ever-popular preserving jars, very useful for storage. You can even choose from a range of lids, some in a variety of colours.

The range of equipment has been built from practical experience - products we have found useful, economic and easy-to-clean in our sister company 'from the country larder'. Jam funnels, maslin pans, jelly bags - even long-handled wooden spoons to keep your hands away from spitting jam! 

Presentation is so important to the final product that there is a unique range of labels for your jams or chutneys designed and printed in house and unavailable elsewhere.

THURSDAY COTTAGE

Thursday Cottage is based at Trewlands Farm, in Tiptree, North Essex. There a small and dedicated group of workers make an enormous variety of preserves under the watchful eye of Tim Came and his team.

All our food is made from the very finest ingredients in small batches in open pans. After the products have been stirred and cooked to perfection, they are then filled by hand.

The great thing about Thursday Cottage today is that the ingredients, the open pan cooking and our products' distinctive taste and character are much the same as they were when the company was founded in 1963.

The company was founded by Swiss born Kurt Kunzli and his Somerset born wife Jill. It was from their home in Spaxton, Somerset, using a recipe of Jill's mother, that marmalade making began in earnest and little by little the brand 'Thursday Cottage' became valued and appreciated within the health food and independent trade sectors.

BARCLAYS

Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth management with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia.

With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 145,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide.

ALISTAIR SAWDAY'S

Publishing beautiful books is only the most recent of Alastair's endeavours: in the past he has led tours all over France, guided disaster relief teams in Turkey, worked for the VSO in Papua New Guinea, and any number of other exotic things – all pursued with the same intelligence and exuberance he demonstrates as a publisher.

His lifelong passion in all his work has been the environment. This explains such wrinkles in his career as standing for Parliament with the Green Party in 1992, and vice chairing the Soil Association. His convictions are manifest today in the way our books are produced, and the way our office is run. In 2006 Alastair Sawday Publishing was awarded a Queen's Award for Sustainable Development.

His books succeed because readers trust their high standards. Increasingly Alastair’s commitment to ecological issues has meant the creation of a Sawday imprimatur for “greenery” – an informal certification of owners’ commitment to being a force for good in the shape of our Ethical Collection.