Frank Cooper's facts for kids
Three jars of Frank Cooper's products
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| Owner | Hain Celestial Group |
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| Introduced | 1874 |
| Website | Official website: https://www.frankcoopers.co.uk/ |
Frank Cooper's is a famous British brand that makes delicious marmalades and jams. It's especially known for its "Oxford" Marmalade. This brand even has a special "Royal Warrant", which means they supply products to the Royal Family! Sarah Cooper started the brand in 1874. Today, it's owned by a company called Hain Celestial Group.
Contents
The Story of Frank Cooper's
How It All Began: The First Marmalade
The story of Frank Cooper's began with Francis Thomas Cooper. He first had a shop in High Street, Oxford, where he sold hats and socks. Later, around 1845, he changed his shop into a grocery store.
Francis Cooper bought more space on High Street for his shop and family home. In 1867, his son, Frank Cooper, took over the business. He made the shop even bigger, taking over the building next door.
In 1874, Frank Cooper's wife, Sarah-Jane, made a large batch of marmalade. She used her own special recipe. This marmalade became very popular with customers!
For many years, the marmalade was made right there at the High Street shop. But by 1903, they needed more space. So, Frank Cooper moved the marmalade making to a new factory. He kept the High Street shop open until 1919.
Making Marmalade at the Park End Street Factory
The new factory was built on Park End Street in Oxford. It was designed by an architect named Herbert Quinton. This factory had four floors! Each floor had a special job, like cutting fruit or bottling the finished marmalade. There was even a separate dining room for the workers.
The factory was built in a great spot. It was close to the train stations in Oxford. This made it easy to get fruit and sugar delivered. It also made it simple to send the finished marmalade and jam all over the country.
The business grew quickly, so the factory had to be made bigger several times. This happened in 1912, 1915, 1924, and 1925.
Frank Cooper's marmalade was a big hit, especially with students and teachers at Oxford University. It even traveled to Antarctica! A jar of the marmalade was taken on Robert Falcon Scott's famous expedition to the South Pole. Years later, a jar was found buried in the ice.
The marmalade also appeared in a children's book! In Missee Lee by Arthur Ransome, a character named Miss Lee loves Cooper's Oxford Marmalade. She says, "We always eat Oxford marmalade at Cambridge. Better scholars, better professors at Cambridge but better marmalade at Oxford."
Changes and New Owners
After the Second World War, Frank Cooper's moved its factory again. They built a new, larger factory on Botley Road in Oxford.
Besides marmalade, the company also made other tasty products. These included mint sauce and horseradish sauce. In the summer, when marmalade wasn't being made as much, they would switch to making fruit jams, like strawberry. You could even buy their marmalade and jam in fancy china jars!
In 1964, another company called Brown & Polson Ltd. bought Frank Cooper's. They moved the production away from Oxford in 1967. However, they kept the famous "Oxford" name for the marmalade.
For a few years in the 1980s, Frank Cooper's had a shop and a museum back on High Street in Oxford. Today, a special blue plaque marks 84 High Street. It remembers Sarah Cooper and how she started the Oxford Marmalade.
The old factory building on Park End Street is still there! It's now called "The Jam Factory." It's a cool place that has an arts center, a restaurant, and a bar. It also helps a charity for people with learning disabilities.
Over the years, the Frank Cooper's brand has been owned by several different companies. Heinz bought it in 1997. Then it was sold to Rank Hovis McDougall, and later to Premier Foods in 2006. In 2012, the brand was sold again to Hain Celestial Group.
