THE SECRET RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Through my work with The Teenage Market I often come across inspiring stories about young people with extraordinary entrepreneurial talents. However, I don’t think any have struck me quite as much as the story of Fraser Doherty. Following a similar path to Richard Reed, the founder of Innocent Smoothies, Fraser built his business ‘SuperJam’ up from a simple market stall into a multi-million pound company which now sells jam to thousands of supermarkets worldwide.

Fraser’s incredible journey to success began when he was just 14 years old, after his grandma decided to share her secret recipe for jam with him in her tiny kitchen in Glasgow. Fraser enjoyed making the jam so much that he started to cook it every day after school. Like many of our Teenage Market traders, Fraser decided to turn his passion into a business and started selling his jam at farmer’s markets in his hometown of Edinburgh.

After experimenting with the product, Fraser soon found a way of being able to make it without any added sugar or additives, then, armed with a few jars of his 100% fruit jam, he set off to take his business to the next level and pitched his product to Waitrose. After a bit of work sorting out his production line, Waitrose agreed to stock SuperJam and Fraser became the youngest ever supplier to a key supermarket chain in the U.K.

In the first day alone, 50,000 jars were produced and 1,500 sold in one store in Edinburgh, that’s more jam than they would normally sell in a month! Following the huge success of SuperJam in the UK, Fraser expanded the business internationally and has since written a SuperJam cookbook and set up SuperJam Tea Parties, a nonprofit organisation that holds hundreds of free tea party events for elderly people who live alone or in nursing homes. Fraser’s inspiring story is the result of what happens when you combine hard-work, passion and determination with a really good product and bags of enthusiasm. I’m glad to say that I see the same set of qualities in many of our Teenage Market traders across the country. If you’re interested in seeing Fraser speak in person about his journey, make sure to attend the FSB National Conference in Glasgow in March. If you’re interested in seeing young entrepreneurial talent just like Fraser, make sure to visit a Teenage Market near you.

Joe Barratt

Co-Founder, The Teenage Market

If you would like to contact Joe about setting up a Teenage Market in your town or city please email him at joe@theteenagemarket.co.uk