Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Home-made jam is roaring back into fashion as shoppers snap up preserve-making equipment, according to Homebase.
Sales of specialist jam-making Kilner jars, thermometers, jam funnels, and boiling pans have jumped by over 2000% in the last year alone, according to the home improvement chain.
Red and blue gingham labels, jelly bags, jelly funnels, transparent covers and waxed circles have also shown similar increases.
A glut of British home grown summer fruits, combined with a recession -driven desire to save cash, is behind the trend.
Said Homebase cookshop buyer Mathew Nicholas: “We’re seeing a return to the habits of an earlier generation. Things may be tough but in true stiff-upper lip style, the British nation has clearly decided that there will always be strawberry jam for tea.”
Will Torrent, award winning pastry chef and food consultant, said: “With the continued rise of baking in Britain, we’re turning our attention to making more things at home by hand, whether it be baking, sewing or jam making – we all love it!”
Homebase sells around 38,000 products for the home and garden. It has 331 large, out-of-town stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland serving around 60 million customers a year, and a growing internet offering at www.homebase.co.uk.
In the financial year to February 2013, Homebase sales were £1.4 billion and it employed some 18,000 people across the business. Homebase is part of Home Retail Group, the UK’s leading home and general merchandise retailer.
