Is it realistic to build a successful business in the production of jam

Selling food products via the Internet is a growing trend. According to the head of the Crafta marketplace. a, it is in this niche that a lot of growth is planned (in particular, Kraft has recently added a section of food products from small producers)

The owner of the online store Lasska Irina tells how to sell designer jam on the Internet and develop your own business.

I've been making jam since January 2021. My profession is not connected with cooking, just at some point I realized that I needed to radically change something in my life. Stop sitting out the day at work and waiting for it to end. I had only one desire - to start my own small business.

Idea for business

I needed a business with a low threshold of entry, with a minimum start-up capital, and so that in the future there would be time to raise a child. I listened to examples of successful entrepreneurs, read articles, asked my friends - and gradually I came to a decision to make jam. I wanted to create something non-standard, interesting - crazy mixes of fruits, vegetables, berries, seeds, nuts and spices.

I lived with this idea, experimented a lot with tastes. Something turned out well right away, something needed to be improved. Now this is my main activity, I quit my job in June 2021.

Questions and Answers

When the jam was ready and beautifully decorated, a number of questions arose. How to sell it? How to find your buyers? Do I need my product and what is its uniqueness?

At first I prescribed for myself why my jam is valuable, and then I confidently went with it to consumers. My jam is a delicious, and most importantly, natural product. The delicacy is well complemented by pancakes, cheesecakes or toasts, and some tastes - cheese or meat.

Also, my jam can be presented as a gift. A special design of the jar helped to develop this idea, it was interesting for me to work on its creation. I made the packaging so that the label could be used as a postcard - if it is a gift, then write to whom and from whom. For corporate orders, you can add a company logo. Or use a jar of jam as an original invitation to a wedding or other holiday (the date and time of the celebration can also be indicated on the label).

To make the jam easy to eat, and my fingers do not get dirty while trying to scoop up the leftovers from the bottom, I pour it into low, wide jars.

Nuances and secrets

It takes about 2-3 days to make a batch of 25-30 cans. Why so long? I prepare the jam in several stages so as to preserve the integrity of the fruit pieces, use a minimum of water, and avoid thickeners and preservatives.

Tinned preparations have not lost their popularity among the population today. The main change to which the market has undergone is a decrease in the volume of home production and an increase in industrial production with subsequent sale in retail outlets. The reason for this trend is the growth of activity and employment of the population. Making jam is a rather long and laborious process, however, due to the popularity of products and a low threshold for entering the market, this business is quite profitable and promising.

Currently, a significant segment of the market is made up of products of large industrial manufacturers. The share of small entrepreneurs is insignificant here, which, however, is not a consequence of tough competition. The cost of industrial and household goods is approximately equal, and the population prefers natural production. This allows, when entering the market, to sell their products on equal terms with large manufacturers.

Technology and production specifics

The jam production technology is quite simple. The only difficulty in production can be created by setting the task to preserve the shape of the berries during cooking. To do this, during cooking, it is necessary to repeatedly heat the consistency for a long time, as well as pay increased attention to the variety itself and the degree of ripeness of berries or fruits.

In normal cooking, the whole procedure is as follows. The fruits are sorted, cleaned of dirt and dust, from the stalks, then the mass is blanched in hot water for several minutes in order to soften the pulp and increase permeability.

Next is the preparation of the syrup. The base is sugar. Also, in order to avoid possible crystallization, 15% molasses should be added.

A special boiler is used for cooking jam, which has a steam jacket for heating and a paddle stirrer. When cooking, the main difficulty is that the berries can be tough and float. The reason is the high strength of the peel, which prevents the syrup from penetrating into the berries. To avoid this, you should alternate multiple cooking with cooling, which allows you to create a reduced pressure inside the berries and facilitate the penetration of the syrup. The total cooking time should be about 30-40 minutes, and the cooling time should be about 12 hours.

Also, during cooking, it is necessary to maintain the concentration of dry substances in the syrup. In the finished jam, it is about 70%, while the share of berries is about 45%.

Production Requirements

General specifications for the preparation of jam are listed in GOST R 53118-2021. The document defines the classification of jam (by the method of production and types), organoleptic properties of the finished product, requirements for raw materials, packaging, labeling, transportation and storage.

The room in which the products are manufactured should be spacious and have a division into zones for storing raw materials, direct cooking and storing finished products. You also need a hot water supply and electricity supply.

In the industrial production of jams and jams, artificial colors, flavors and thickeners are often added to reduce costs. Modern consumers have begun to think about this and often prefer natural, healthy treats. In addition, quality jams and marmalades are often required to make delicious baked goods. So, we have a demand for a product, so let's look at the production of jams and preserves as an idea for building a business.

Home production

For a start, it makes sense to offer jam to your friends and colleagues. Word of mouth has not been canceled, and often it gives good results. Also, a good option would be to sell your products to grocery stores or outlets in the market. You may not even try to enter large chains, and even more so hypermarkets, with your goods. Firstly, they will ask you for all the necessary documentation and certificates, secondly, they will require large consignments of goods that are unrealistic to produce at home, and, thirdly, in retail chains there is a complex system of listing and rebates that will not leave a small enterprise profit ...

If you have taken up the production of jam, do not bypass various exhibitions and festivals. At them, visitors will be able to taste the goods and buy a jar or two. You may even find regular customers there.

Special Product

You can increase your profitability by offering your customers an exclusive product. This can be the production of homemade jams, for example, with herbs or spices, rose petal or dandelion jam.

You can find some old recipes and try to cook a sweet product using them. An exclusive product will also require proper packaging. It can be some kind of small pots or labels, stylized as old ones.

Real life example

For example, you can go to the website of the company that produces Ecosbor jam. They position themselves as a company engaged in the production of sweets from highly environmentally friendly raw materials collected near the reserve. The design emphasizes the authenticity of the product. You can come up with something of your own, the main thing is to emphasize the uniqueness of your own product.

Setting up a mini-factory

Jam production as a business can be implemented in another format - to organize a mini-factory. Before creating such a business, you need to decide in advance on the sales market, interview nearby bakeries and pastry shops to find out who supplies them with preserves and jams for baking, are they satisfied with their suppliers, would they like to change them, how much they are willing to pay for a kilogram of jam, or jam, how much jam do they buy a month? If the market situation is favorable, you can start.

First you need to find a suitable room. All communications must be carried out in it: electricity, water, sewage, a good exhaust system is equipped. The area required for production is, depending on the selected equipment, from 100 to 200 square meters. If necessary, the room will need to be redecorated.

DailyMail Online: Sugar, butter, a bucket of strawberries and some lemon! Homemade strawberry jam is back in fashion! This is partly due to budget savings, as well as the prototype of consumers who prefer organically healthy food. In addition, summer is outside - a brilliant time for growing fruits and berries (growing strawberries, raspberries and other products necessary for the production of jam).

Content of the article

“Jam is losing its old-fashioned image and becoming popular with young people,” says entrepreneur Fraser Doherty, founder of SuperJam. It somehow occurred to him to collect all the recipes for making jam from his grandmother and make his first million, before even reaching 20 years.

Where to make jam?

Young Doherty started making jams in his parents' kitchen, so aspiring entrepreneurs looking for home business production ideas may also consider implementing this idea. Thanks to grandma's recipes, jams were hugely popular in farm produce and gourmet markets. After a while, the young man developed his own technology for the production of jam, only fruits were used (without sugar). This idea relates to business in the countryside.

Using 100% fruit is an innovation. The unique recipe was named SuperJam. The young man interested one depressive factory with his delicious jam. Over time, their interest was fully justified.

Having installed production equipment, created and promoted a brand, improved his own recipes, Fraser became the youngest supplier of Waitrose (a large supermarket chain). The first contract was signed in March 2021. This happened at the age of 16. At that time, SuperJam was sold in virtually every branch of the Waitrose chain. Since then, SuperJam products have been sold all over the world. SuperJam now supplies more than 2,000 supermarkets around the world (Asda, Wal-Mart, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Sainsbury`s) in Australia, Russia, Denmark, Ireland and Finland.

Register your business

A popular option for registering a small production is to open a limited liability company. Type of taxation - STS with the object of income minus expenses. For opening a full-fledged mini workshop, LLC is an ideal option In addition, further expansion of the company and hiring of employees is possible.

For entrepreneurs who decide to open an LLC: Self registration Taxes for LLC What to do next? Step by step liquidation

If you decide to make jam at home and do not plan to hire staff, register as a private entrepreneur. The main advantage of an individual entrepreneur is the simplicity of paperwork and minimal taxes.

Get the conclusion of the sanitary and epidemiological station

To be honest, various sweet goodies - cakes, ice cream, cakes, etc. - everyone loves without exception. Even those who are on the strictest diet and sweat in gyms, or do not eat sweets due to some illness. The assortment of the "sweet" market has grown so much that the eyes literally run across the shop windows. However, the leading positions in demand among sweets are confidently occupied by jams, jams, syrups, jam, etc. made from natural ingredients. - everything that any good housewife can do.

Current market situation

The economic sanctions imposed by Western countries, it turns out, also affect the dynamics of the production of canned sweets from natural products. At the present time, the market for preserves, jams, and other similar products, to be honest, is somewhat worse than, say, 3-4 years ago. Let's try to understand the situation. People have not given up sweets. Just against the background of a general decline in welfare, it has become more preferable to cook jam, jams, marmalades, etc. on your own.

But this circumstance affects only the sale of products from store shelves. But jam and jams are also used as a sweet filling in pancakes, dumplings, the same cakes, and other confectionery products, so the situation is not as bad as they try to imagine. Moreover, now the government is providing real assistance to small and medium-sized businesses, and it would be simply unreasonable not to take advantage of this.

Well, of course, it should be noted that jam production as a business is more suitable for women. Find out more business ideas for women here.

This is interesting: jam is a primordially Slavic product (among Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians), not typical for Western countries. In many languages of the world, the word "jam" is borrowed from Russian. And it sounds exactly the same as we pronounce it.

What can be used to make jam and what taste Russian consumers prefer

Jam and jams can be cooked from almost any fruits and berries, and even some vegetables and flowers:

Traditional for Russian cultivated and wild vegetation - raspberries, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, wild strawberries, cherries, plums, apples, mountain ash, etc.
Exotic, not typical for most of the country - grapes, apricots, peaches, melons, watermelons, figs, oranges, lemons, etc. “Even the peel is used” - for example, they make jam from watermelon peels, orange or lemon skins, etc.
From rose petals, green pine cones, young walnuts and other types of nuts, zucchini, etc.

Ways to make jam

Any housewife can cook jam at home, but the taste of the preservative prepared from the same fruit can be completely different. The fact is that everyone has their own cooking technology: