The Story Behind the Jar: Why You Won’t Find Our Honey on Supermarket Shelves

Grab a cuppa and settle in - we’re sharing a true story this week. It’s one that perfectly captures who we are as a small family business and, more importantly, why we do things differently.

This isn't just about honey; it’s about a promise.

The Unexpected Invitation

Back in 2019, not long after we launched our little online shop, the phone rang with a genuinely exciting, if slightly nerve-wracking, call. It was one of the UK’s largest food companies.

They'd heard the buzz about our growing reputation for ethical, high-quality honey and wanted to explore a partnership. For a small producer like us, this felt huge—the kind of opportunity you dream of, a real moment of validation for all the early mornings spent with the bees.

We eagerly accepted. We met their Managing Director, toured their vast facilities, and shared our journey: our hands-on beekeeping, our small family beginnings, and our mission to offer raw, unblended honey exactly as nature intended. It felt like we were making a connection, sharing our passion.

Where We Had to Draw the Line

As the conversation progressed, however, the exciting opportunity started to fade. It wasn't that their team wasn't lovely; it was that their vision for our product was fundamentally different from ours.

What really stopped us in our tracks was the proposal: they wanted us to create a "uniform" product for mass supermarket shelves by supplying us with cheaper, imported, blended varieties. They promised massive national roll-out and huge visibility.

That was the moment. We knew instantly where we had to draw the line.

For us at Maters & Co, honey has never been just a sweet indulgence - it’s a liquid promise. A promise of unwavering purity, the distinct character of small batches, and the meticulous care that goes into hand-procurement and ethical beekeeping.

When a large company asks you to blend or dilute your honey, they are asking you to compromise the very essence of what makes it special.

Capturing the Season, Not Blending It Away

The reality is that blending honey is done to ensure the product tastes precisely the same year-round. It turns a unique agricultural product into a generic commodity.

Our honey, however, is designed to taste different throughout the year. It captures the changing seasons, the specific wildflowers in bloom, and the unique story of the bees in that exact location. To blend it away would be to lose that authentic flavour, the inherent goodness, and the integrity that defines us. It would mean erasing the character created by the bees themselves.

We absolutely understand the pull of supplying supermarkets - the financial gains, the scale, the enormous reach. But the truth is, large-scale distribution often clashes with our fundamental values: purity, quality, and ethical craftsmanship. To meet those huge demands would mean changing how we work, and that is a compromise we will never make.

Our Commitment is to You

So, we politely declined their very generous offer.

Our commitment has never been to the biggest buyer, the volume, or the shelf space - it’s to you. It's to the integrity of every single jar we produce, to the well-being of our bees, and to the traditional values that define this family business.

When you choose Maters & Co, you are not just buying a jar of honey. You’re supporting a philosophy rooted in honesty, craftsmanship, and respect for nature - and you get to enjoy the pure, unblended taste exactly as the bees made it.

Thank you for being part of our story.