Fraser Doherty: SuperJam

Fraser Doherty, 20
Company: SuperJam
Web: www.superjam.co.uk

Fraser Doherty, last year’s ‘One for 2009′, graduated to the full Young Guns list after his pure fruit jam brand SuperJam significantly increased sales across stockists, which include all of the major supermarkets. The company was founded when a 14-year-old Doherty spotted the untapped potential of his gran’s jam recipes. After successful trials at farmers’ markets, he became the youngest stockist to a major supermarket when he signed a deal to supply Waitrose in 2007.

The socially minded Doherty has also run more than 120 SuperJam Tea Parties for housebound elderly people, seen his products picked as an ‘iconic Scottish food brand’ by the National Museum of Scotland, and given away a free jar to every reader of The Sun newspaper. International expansion and new products are next on the 20-year-old’s list.

2012 update: Doherty sells his 100% fruit jam in over 2,000 stores across eight different countries including Germany and Australia and plans to expand to the USA in January. In 2012, the young entrepreneur launched SuperHoney, an initiative to set up beehives in schools and community areas and sell the produce in leading supermarkets.

2016 update: 

In 2013, SuperJam branched out into the honey market with a new product appropriately titled SuperHoney. On the back of this the company set up community beehives to create homes for millions of bees across the UK. Today, SuperHoney operates a 50-hive project in Seoul, South Korea. Capitalising on the home baking trend, the company launched its own range of home baking mixes later that year, and Fraser co-founded craft beer subscription service Beer52 with fellow Young Gun James Brown. Doherty has released two books – The SuperJam Cookbook and SuperBusiness – given more than 500 speeches in over 30 countries around the world and his story was even dramatised for TV in Japan. He was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2014 for services to business.