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In a grim news week, the revelation that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has plumped for strawberry jam as the first product of her new lifestyle brand provided some sweet relief from a diet of doom.
Saccharine-laced compliments popped up on Instagram from fashion and beauty influencers lucky enough to have received one of a batch of 50 jars. Jam on toast is hardly the go-to snack of Los Angeles A-listers, so I smirked at the “curation”: glossy snaps of a sugar and carb-laden treat against a backdrop of fresh produce and smoothies.
Described as the “soft launch” of American Riviera Orchard, the Duchess was revealing a new company whose US patent registration mentions jams and jellies, plus other items including tableware, kitchen linens and recipe books.
The website for the new brand gives little away: there’s a regal-looking insignia and the opportunity to “Join Waitlist” (it is not clear for what). The Duchess is to present a Netflix show about cooking, entertaining and gardening, so this appears to be part of a wider move into flogging home and kitchen accessories. But will jam (plus trimmings) make any money?
Countless celebrities have released a recipe book. Only a handful have ever gone on to release a second, let alone launch their own food range.
As a committed jam maker of many years, I can attest it is a totally uneconomical hobby. From the time spent picking fruit to the hazards of simmering a huge vat of boiling sugar while simultaneously freezing saucers to test the set and sterilising jars in the oven, it would be much easier and cheaper to buy it. But that is not the point.
For me, and many others who delight in this process, it’s a pleasure — both the eating and the ritual of making it. When I pick blackberries and follow the bramble jam recipe written in my late grandmother’s handwriting, I feel a deep connection with the past.
Although Meghan’s probably uses Californian strawberries, consumer experts suspect that retro Britishness is the commercial juice she’s attempting to sell to the US consumer (refer to it as “jelly” at your peril).
“Cute Britannia” is how Kate Hardcastle, founder of brand consultancy Insight with Passion, describes the vibe, adding that the concept of jam and afternoon tea is “fascinating” to Americans — and who better to sell it to them than a duchess? And while some may mock, father-in-law King Charles has a long-term jam-related side hustle with his Duchy Originals brand. My local Waitrose currently retails a 340g jar of Duchy organic strawberry preserve for £2.80. Although Megan has yet to sell a single jar, one suspects her price point will be more Hollywood.
Hardcastle says she could imagine it being stocked by Erewhon, the LA cult celebrity supermarket, and draws comparisons with the Flamingo Estate. Its LA-based website sells limited runs of honey from hives owned by celebrities (often to fund non-profits) which fetch as much as $250 a jar. It’s a far cry from my homespun efforts with upcycled jars and sticky labels from a catalogue — these are high status gifts for the person who has everything.
But an Instagram flurry will not translate into automatic profit. Analysts point out that American Riviera Orchard will need to develop a much wider range of goods for there to be jam tomorrow.
“The challenge will be coming up with a collection of different products that sit together really well,” says US-based Neil Saunders of GlobalData Retail. High-end home and kitchenware is a crowded and competitive space. He adds: “The name only carries her so far.”
One obvious comparison is Goop, the wellness and lifestyle company founded in 2008 by Gwyneth Paltrow, which sells its own-label fashion and beauty products as well as a selection of luxury brands. The royal family is likely to be relieved the Duchess’s patent application does not include yoni eggs.
Noting the time it took Paltrow to establish her brand and win backing from investors, Saunders says: “People think of Gwyneth as being a lifestyle guru, and that’s where the Duchess is going to struggle. She’s going to have to work very hard to build up expertise. The idea that she could be the next Martha Stewart does not at this stage feel plausible.”
In the UK, Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver shifted millions of books before they expanded into food and product ranges, or lucrative kitchen equipment endorsements.
It feels inevitable that the Netflix show will be accompanied by a book deal, though a cookery book feels unlikely to contain the ingredients that made Prince Harry’s memoir Spare an international bestseller. Leaning in to a nostalgic notion of Britishness could fly in the US, but the challenges of the lifestyle brand business means success won’t be handed to them on a silver platter.
Claer Barrett is the FT’s consumer editor; [email protected]; Instagram and TikTok @ClaerB.
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