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Case
Study
Mammy Jamia’s:
Taking a product
to market
Introduction
In 2008 Andrew and Sajmira Cairns,
founders of Mammy Jamia’s, visited
Sajmira’s family in Tirana, Albania. Her
mother, Mammy Jamia, introduced
Andrew to a family recipe of fruit preserves.
The recipe had been in the family for
around a 100 years and the preserves were
extremely popular with friends and family
in the local area.
Entrepreneurial by nature, Andrew and
Sajmira saw an opportunity to bring the
traditional preserve recipe to Britain and
sell it as a premium fruit product. Initial
research showed that supermarkets only
carried ‘conventional’ flavours and didn’t
offer more unusual fruit preserves like they
had tried in Albania i.e. fig, apple and pear.
Seeing a potential niche in the market,
the Cairns carried out market research –
literally. They set up a stall at a local market
in Cheshire selling their preserves under
the name Mammy Jamia’s. On the first day
they sold more than 90 jars and within six
weeks they racked up sales of more than
600 jars, establishing Mammy Jamia’s as a
recognised and trusted brand at
the market.
Mammy Jamia’s asked customers for
feedback on the price and quality of their
homemade preserves. The results of the
questionnaires demonstrated a growing
market appetite for unconventional
flavours. The Cairns decided to take their
family recipe to the next level of retail by
establishing Mammy Jamia’s as a company.
They identified a producer that could
keep the traditional flavours and scale up
volume as demand grew.
Challenges
A great product and all the passion in
the world is not enough to get a product
to market. Mammy Jamia’s encountered
many hurdles in getting its preserves from
concept to shop shelf. However, through
determination and continued pitching,
Andrew eventually secured an opportunity
to pitch to a buyer at Sainsbury’s Head
Office in London. Following the successful
meeting, Sainsbury’s gave good feedback
on the product but the packaging was not
ready for commercial sale, they were asked
to re-do the labels.
This meant that to trade with Sainsbury’s
the preserves must have suitable
commercial labels and be compliant with
its trading regulations. The packaging
must also meet specific size requirements
and bar codes must be included on
all products. Being new to retail, these
challenges were significant for Mammy
Jamia’s. The Cairns’s soon found that they
needed professional support to prepare
their preserves for supermarket sale.
Recommendation from
GS1 UK
To become ‘ready to trade’, Mammy
Jamia’s had to meet supermarket retail
requirements including specified product
dimensions, packaging and, crucially, a
GS1 standardised bar code which could be
read by scanners at point of sale.
Mammy Jamia’s located GS1 UK online and
became a member. The initial membership
gave them 1,000 Global Trade Item
Numbers (GTINs). A GTIN is the number
below a traditional bar code, it is the
unique identifier that retailers need to
distinguish between products in their
inventory. Through the GS1 UK website,

“The
industry
knowledge,
professional
advice and support given by
GS1 UK helped us to bridge the
gap between product concept
and market. It is necessary to
have GS1 membership to trade
with the supermarkets we were
targeting, being complaint
with GS1 standards made our
trading agreements possible. “
Andrew Cairns,
Co-founder, Mammy Jamia’s
Mammy Jamia’s used the GTIN to generate
a retail ready bar code which was added
to their product packaging design.
As a member of GS1 UK, Mammy
Jamia’s was offered much more than
just a product bar code and GTIN. The
Service Team at GS1 UK advised Mammy
Jamia’s on packaging requirements
and regulations needed to trade with
supermarkets. Mammy Jamia’s was also
given access to My Number Bank which
provides members with an online storage
facility to keep track of products and GTIN
allocation.
GS1 UK also recommended that Mammy
Jamia’s implement EDI standards which
automate re-ordering and invoicing for
products. This process, which is usually
adopted by major retailers, reduces the
need for paper and replaces human
intervention.
Using EDI also enables businesses to:
• save money
• create an electronic audit trail
• reduce costs with fewer manual
processes
• increase customer satisfaction and
loyalty by reducing ‘out of stocks’
• gain competitive advantage by
exchanging orders and invoices instantly
• create an electronic audit trail
Implementation
After designing a label which made
provision for a GS1 bar code and GTIN,
Mammy Jamia’s negotiated with a printer,
provided them with the industry standard
GS1 bar code and finally had a product
ready to trade.
Through simple logistics management,
Mammy Jamia’s producer coordinated
the movement of the labelled jars to
stores throughout the UK. All the jars were
correctly bar coded and packaged ready
for sale in-store and online.
Outcome
In the first year, Mammy Jamia’s sold
103,000 jars of preserve through UK
Sainsbury’s stores. The preserves were
also listed as one of the most popular
preserves that Sainsbury’s sells. The
product range has since expanded from
four flavours to now include Rhubarb,
Ginger, Quince and Greengage. Mammy
Jamia’s products are now sold online
by major retailers and in multiple stores
throughout Britain, selling on average
1,000 jars a week.
As Mammy Jamia’s continues to expand,
its next target is Somerfield, Co-operative
and Morrison’s. Furthermore, several
US retailers have expressed interest in
Mammy Jamia’s preserves meaning that
expanding into overseas market may soon
become a reality.
Mammy Jamia’s preserves are now available in hundreds of supermarkets, including:
30 200 216
Booths W a i t r o s e
0f Sainsbury’s
Supermarkets s t o r e s
biggest stores
300
Tesco stores
nationwide
25
A s d a
stores
Online at www.Ocado.com
Staple Court,
11 Staple Inn Buildings
London WC1V 7QH
T +44 (0)20 7092 3500
F +44 (0)20 7681 2290
E info@gs1uk.org
Service Team (Freefone) 0808 178 8799
www.gs1uk.org
GS1 UK is a company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales under company number 1256140. Registered office Staple Court, 11 Staple Inn Buildings, London, WC1V 7QH. VAT number GB287940215.
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