Rachel Kettlewell was still teaching part-time with three small children at home when she registered her healthy jams startup in 2019. Three years later she delved full-time into her business, but even then it was after initially taking a sabbatical from the education sector.
It has proved a wise and fruitful decision. From setting out with a goal of being stocked in 10 farm shops in Yorkshire, Fearne & Rosie has since secured national listings in more than 5,100 stores nationwide, from Waitrose to Holland & Barrett.
With a revenue forecast of £2m for the 2025 financial year, the low-sugar preserves maker has a three-year plan for £7m in revenue and is seen as the fastest-growing jam brand in UK grocery.
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Success can be pointed to its contents: 40% less sugar and 70% more fruit than standard, using all natural ingredients from farms in the UK and Europe.
“It’s not a fancy secretive recipe, it’s just really obvious,” says Kettlewell.
“It’s a big part of why we started. I’m not from the food industry, I am just a teacher and so when I looked at the products on the shelf and saw how much sugar and how little fruit there was, it seemed obvious to me to put in more fruit and less sugar.”
Her initial plan received an early boost when she listed in 30 farm shops within the first month of trading, alongside selling on Instagram, although she says she wouldn’t do the same today after yielding no profit from selling glass jars via Royal Mail.
After early talks with Morrisons in Yorkshire and Waitrose, it was only in 2024 when the company entered retailers such as Co-op and Tesco that the business took off, having used her husband’s manufacturing facility to produce the first iterations. Its berry-rich products are now made in Belgium following rapid scale.
A registered B-Corp business, Kettlewell says that 2% of its revenue goes to charitable causes. BBC Children in Need is a corporate partner, while it supports food redistributor charity FareShare.
“I come from teaching, where people are generally quite friendly, open and honest,” says Kettlewell. “In business, I have met people who haven’t built businesses the way I would expect them to be run.
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“When they are commercially minded and not seeing the wider impact of what they are doing, I find that hard sometimes. For me, balancing profit and purpose is the way to do it, even though we are a commercial entity.”
