Year in Review: 2021
Well, 2021 is over. It’s undeniable. It can’t be denied.
I’ve spent the first few weeks of January recovering from a month of almost non-stop jam making and order packing, which, I’ll be honest, I was quite underprepared for. Everything worked out though and as far as I know all the jam went to the right places and was enjoyed by the right people.
Thanks everyone for supporting my small business during 2021, it’s been fun. I've put together some numbers and stats about the year - read on for more.
- Rikki
How much did you sell?
In total, 616 jars were sold in 2021. November and December were the busiest month due to two new stockists and Christmas presents!
What flavours did you make?
By far the best seller in 2021 was Original. Makes sense, it was the only flavour available for the first 5 months of the year until Wild Garlic came along. Overall I developed and sold 11 different variants of chilli jam!
How much did you make?
In 2021, I sold 616 jars of jam - about 133.3 litres. Adding on the 6.85 litres sold via catering, that means I made 130.05 litres of jam! I looked it up and that's about 1.6 typical UK bathtubs.
Where'd it all go?
You can get Easton Chilli delivered anywhere in the UK, but about 2/3rds of the orders came only from Bristol. This is probably because I focussed most of my advertising spend on Bristol this year.
Where'd the money go?
A portion of each sale from Easton Chilli goes is put aside and donated to charity. The Trussel Trust receives £1 for each jar (retail), each 200ml (catering) and 30% of profit from merch (between £1-2.50). I also donate 1% of online transactions to the Stripe Climate Fund.
I think it's important to be able to quantify any charitable claims a business makes. Otherwise, you're at risk of charity-washing. I put together the graph below to demonstrate Easton Chilli's commitment to charity - it's about 22% of expenses which is significant! The donation represents between 30% and 60% of profit made from each item (since the donation is fixed to £1 per jar, the amount varies depending on the product and whether any wholesale discount applies).
Overall, Easton Chilli just about broke even in 2021, excluding set up costs (which I covered myself). There are definitely a lot of things that can be improved and made more efficient, plus it's just expensive to set up a business - there are lots of hidden costs and trade offs to make.
Some other numbers...
Finally...
THANK YOU again to everyone who supported my small business in 2021!
If you have any thoughts about this post, feel free to DM @eastonchilli on Instagram, or send a message using this form.
Cheers!
Frequently asked
How spicy are your products?
Tolerance to chilli heat is very individual! Easton Chilli products are rated out of 5 on heat, trying to make a scale that works for regular people (i.e. people who don't have hot sauce on everything! :) )
- 0/5 - No heat here. Possibly suitable for your newborn baby.
- 1/5 - Just a hint. If you like your spice, you probably think this is nothing.
- 2/5 - A bit of zing. Everyone should be able to enjoy this level of heat, whether you're a regular folk or a chilli fiend. Most of our products are aimed at this level.
- 3/5 - It's heating up. Probably getting a little spicy for the regular folk now, definitely too spicy for a newborn baby.
- 4/5 - Now we're talking! You might talk your pal into trying this once, but they might need a glass of milk, and they might not speak to you for a while.
- 5/5 - Everything that's way too spicy for a regular person.
Here are some rough equivalences in heat.
- Heinz Tomato Ketchup = Easton Chilli 0/5
- Nando's Medium Peri Peri = Easton Chilli 2/5
- That chilli sauce at your local kebab shop = probably Easton Chilli 3/5
- Chilli Daddy's 4 = Easton Chilli 5/5
How does delivery work?
We offer a selection of delivery services depending on your location and order. Choose from them at the checkout.
- Local delivery (Easton and nearby): FREE
- Royal Mail 2nd Class (UK, NI, GG, JE, IM): £4
- Orders weighing more than 2kg (5+ jars): £7.50
- Orders valued £30 or more: FREE!
All orders should be with you within 3-5 working days from when you order (it might be a little longer than this sometimes, we'll be in touch if so).
Large orders (10+ jars) please get in touch so we can make special arrangements.
International orders are available depending on what the customs regulations are of your country. Please get in touch before you place your order to confirm whether we can ship to your country.
Where are your products made?
I started making everything in my home kitchen in Easton! This was great until Christmas 2023 when everyone wanted a jar of chilli jam, In January 2024 I started renting a professional kitchen over in Brislington to make all the products. At some point I hope to return production to Easton!
My t-shirts are printed by the lovely Live Ink Co, based in Bedminster in Bristol.
Sustainability etc?
Of course. Sustainability is important to Easton Chilli and it's considered in all parts of the business.
Packaging
We try to reuse waste materials in our packaging, so if someone has delivered bubble wrap to us, or we have a perfectly sized Amazon box lying around, we might use them for your order. Better to reuse it than throw it away to landfill!
All new packaging that we source is plastic-free and recyclable, and we prefer to buy cardboard or recycled materials where possible. Sometimes we use corn-starch mailer bags.
Any waste cardboard that we can't use gets shredded and put into our compost heap, along with our waste vegetable scraps from jam cooking. The worms love this arrangement.
Product
We try to source all our ingredients "loose" and prefer local and low-plastic companies.
We use preserving techniques like lacto-fermentation to extend the shelf life of some of our ingredients, for example we can buy in a few kg of bird's eye chillies and keep using them for months under the right conditions.
The old packaging of our jars is designed to be removed - it's just a bit of string and card. The idea is that you're more likely to reuse a jar if you don't have to spend ages washing off the sticker that's on it. Our new packaging is paper based and biodegradable - no plastic.
We currently use plastic tamper seals on our 150ml hot sauce bottles, and plastic lids; we are working towards using a compostable tamper seals but the lids will probably be plastic as long as we use this type of bottle.
Unfortunately due to UK Food Safety regulations, we are not allowed to re-use any glass destined to be a "packaged product" i.e. a jar of jam or a bottle of sauce that is sold to a consumer. We have to use new jars and lids for each product. If this weren't the case we'd love to have a closed-loop return and reuse system in place, and we'd be up for working with other producers to standardise on our packaging to make it more viable.
Delivery
We've partnered with Zedify to deliver some of our packages in Bristol. Their fleet of electric cargo bikes means their deliveries within BS1-16 are low-carbon-emitting.
Delivery to the rest of the UK is done using Royal Mail and other couriers like APC and DPD, many of which are working to reduce their carbon emissions.