A Paisley grocer, his wife and a marmalade called Golden Shred.

Robertson’s began in Paisley, near Glasgow. English Wikipedia says James Robertson was born in the town in 1832, was apprenticed to a grocer at fifteen, and opened his own grocery on Causeyside Street in 1859. In 1864, it says, he took pity on a struggling salesman and bought a barrel of Seville oranges that would not sell. His wife, Marion Robertson, made them into marmalade. The company’s own version is shorter: Robertson’s says it was established in 1864 “when Mrs Robertson started making marmalade in the family grocery shop.”

The recipe took a decade to settle. Wikipedia says James Robertson perfected it in 1874 and sold it as Golden Shred, a clear orange marmalade; the company still describes Golden Shred as a recipe “perfected since 1874.” A lemon version, Silver Shred, followed in 1909, Wikipedia says, and the company says it has made mincemeat since 1891.

The Paisley grocery became a manufacturer. In 1880 Robertson bought land on Stevenson Street in Paisley and built a three-storey marmalade factory, Wikipedia says. Expansion into England followed: a factory at Droylsden, near Manchester, in 1891; a third at Catford, in London, in 1900; and a fourth at Brislington, near Bristol, in 1914. The business was incorporated in 1903 as James Robertson & Sons, Preserve Manufacturers, Limited. James Robertson died in 1914, aged 83, and his eldest son, John, became chairman. English Wikipedia says Robertson’s received its first Royal Warrant from King George V in 1933.

A mascot retired, then Roald Dahl and Paddington.

For most of the twentieth century Robertson’s was also known for its mascot, a golliwog character called “Golly.” English Wikipedia says it first appeared on the company’s price lists and labels around 1910, after John Robertson saw golliwog dolls on a business trip to the United States, and that from 1928 children could send in jar labels in exchange for enamel badges of the character.

The mascot was withdrawn at the start of the 2000s. On 23 August 2001 Robertson’s, then owned by Rank Hovis McDougall, announced that the character would be dropped, just-food reported that day: it would come off jam jars from the following month, stay on mincemeat jars until Christmas 2001, and the company would honour badge coupons until Easter 2002. The company said its research showed that today’s families knew the character less well than Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka or the BFG, and that it wanted to “move our brand on with the times.” The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph also reported the decision that day. English Wikipedia gives 2002 as the year the mascot was finally retired.

Its replacements came from children’s books. From September 2001, just-food reported, characters from the books of Roald Dahl, drawn by the illustrator Quentin Blake, appeared on Robertson’s jars; Wikipedia says the Dahl partnership ran until 2006. From 2010, Wikipedia says, Robertson’s has worked with Paddington Bear, the marmalade-loving bear of children’s books, including a limited edition for the 2014 film Paddington and a later promotion for Paddington 2. The company says Paddington now features on the labels across the whole range.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group all make jam or marmalade, and all of them come from Britain: Tiptree, Mackays, Hartley’s, Robertson’s, Duerr’s, Frank Cooper’s and Chivers. British jam and marmalade brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from family firms that still carry a founder’s surname to names that now belong to much larger food groups, and a single brand can be sold everywhere from a village shop to a supermarket shelf.

A preserves brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single product than by a jar, a label and the breakfast table it promises, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its factory or grown far beyond the town where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its jam and marmalade are actually made and packed.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its preserves are made and how its jars and labels have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

From Paisley to Droylsden to Histon.

The factories closed one by one. English Wikipedia says Catford shut in 1970 and the original Paisley factory in 1974. In 1981 the loss-making company was bought by Avana Foods, which closed Brislington and concentrated production at Droylsden. From 1987 the brand belonged to Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM).

In March 2007 Premier Foods completed its takeover of RHM, bringing Robertson’s under the same owner as its old rival Hartley’s. Wikipedia says Premier soon announced the closure of the Droylsden factory, concentrating all of its UK jam production at Hartley’s plant in Histon, Cambridgeshire. In December 2008, The Daily Telegraph reported, Premier said it would stop selling jam under the Robertson’s name in the UK in 2009, ending the overlap between its two jam brands. Robertson’s has since been a marmalade and mincemeat brand.

In 2012 Premier sold its sweet spreads and jellies business, including Robertson’s, Hartley’s and Frank Cooper’s and the Histon factory, to the American group Hain Celestial for £200 million; Hain’s announcement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission named all three brands. Robertson’s is now part of Hain’s British arm, Hain Daniels, and its website is run by Histon Sweet Spreads Limited. The site describes Golden Shred, Golden Shredless and Silver Shred, and says a Ginger Shred was added more recently; it calls Golden Shred the best-selling marmalade in the UK. It does not name the factory; Histon Sweet Spreads described its Histon site in 2022 as making jams, marmalades, jellies, honey and mincemeat.

Ownership is set to change again. In September 2026 Hain Celestial agreed to sell its international business to the private equity firm AURELIUS, and the trade magazine Food & Drink International listed Robertson’s among the Spreads & Jellies brands in the deal, which Hain expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to approvals.

For a design guide, Robertson’s shows how a brand can rebuild its imagery around a new character while keeping a Victorian product name. Compare Frank Cooper’s, the Oxford marmalade now under the same owner, and Mackays, a Scottish marmalade maker. For this guide we use a Seville orange, a shred gold and a peel cream with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product, character or logo is reproduced.

Keep Robertson’s’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.