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Bermuda Jam Factory

Q & A with Scott Hill

One thing that is common to both of us and what brought us together was a love of unique and spicy foods. This is what originally inspired us to experiment with a jam based on sweet heat. We also have come to be greatly inspired by the enthusiasm of our jam fans and the way people have responded to our creations. Our jam fans have provided a lot of support and encouragement and we can’t thank them enough for that.

Bermuda Jam Factory has had many successes. What have been your most important achievements?

Our company has won an international Scovie Award for the past two years. The Scovie Awards are one of the most prestigious food competitions that recognize top fiery foods from around the world. Last year we won a 2nd place Scovie Award for Storm Surge, our medium heat jalapeno pepper jam, and this year our honey pepper jam, Easy Breeze, won 1st place. We were thrilled to receive these honours and very proud to have our quality and uniqueness recognized internationally.

How do you produce your product?

Our jams are currently made in Bermuda. Originally, we cooked our jam in smaller batches at a licensed kitchen at home. Today, we cook in commercial kitchens, but it is still challenging keeping up with demand. The evolution of our company has meant that we have purchased specialized equipment to speed up some elements of the process as our production needs have increased, but the way we produce it is very much like you would at home. We only use fresh, top grade, all natural ingredients and we have taken great care that the quality of our product has been maintained regardless of the scale of production.

Your flavors are unique, but so is your packaging. Can you explain your themes?

Fun and innovation is at the heart of our packaging. We have a line-up of six pepper jams and a gift pack. Our Jams are named after elements of the weather because when you live on a small island in

the mid-Atlantic, weather systems become very important. Each of our heat levels are named after weather conditions; as the weather intensifies our jam get hotter. For example ‘Easy Breeze’ is our mild honey pepper jam while ‘Hurricane Force’ is our hottest jam. We also had a lot of fun designing our triangular gift pack, which contains a sample of each jam.

Presently, Gombey Peppers Jams are unique in that they can only be purchased in Bermuda. Any plans to expand into other markets?

We feel the next step for us is to enter the US market, but to do that we have been carefully researching and planning to have our jams produced in the US over the past few years. We are right now very close to achieving that. Our vision would be to offer local jam fans the opportunity to order our jams online as gifts for their family and friends in North America, while also capitalizing on the repeat purchases of visitors to Bermuda who love our jams. We receive emails almost daily asking about how they can get more! There are other markets that we would like to be in, but making our jams available in North America is an obvious first step in our expansion plans.

What does the Bermuda Jam Factory have up its sleeve for the future?

Ultimately, we both would like to be able to work full-time at our business. When that happens, we see ourselves of being able to concentrate much more on marketing and product development. We have so many fantastic ideas; we just need the time and the resources to make them happen!

Where can people buy your jams?

Our products are available at more than 12 locations island-wide, year-round. In addition to retail outlets, we also sell our jams in person at various open air markets in Bermuda throughout the tourist season including Destination Dockyard on Monday evenings, St. George’s Market Nights on Tuesday evenings and Harbour Nights on Wednesday evenings. The great thing about the markets is that visitors and locals have the opportunity to sample our full product line-up before they buy. We also participate in Taste of Bermuda in Dockyard on Monday and Thursday evenings where people can taste our award winning pepper jams.