Simple done right
Ficacci Olive Company - Mini Paper Tray Trio
Pots & Co.'s Alex Chamberlain Discusses Company History, U.S. Expansion

Pots & Co.'s Alex Chamberlain Discusses Company History, U.S. Expansion


LONDON, ENGLAND
Friday, November 9th, 2018

Over the past year, Pots & Co. has been expanding its operations stateside, bringing premium restaurant-quality desserts to households throughout the U.S.

In 2012, having realized a gap in the market in the premium quality dessert space, Chef Julian Dyer decided he could take techniques gleaned from the highest levels of culinary excellence and apply them to a product line with mass appeal. His solution to making uniformly delicious baked goods inspired by Michelin star-worthy restaurants? Ceramics.

Pots & Co is producing a line of lava cakes and pots de crème—puddings, possets, and ganaches

“Julian said, ‘yeah, we can do this on a mainstream basis’—not only because he saw a business opportunity there—but because he wanted to bring restaurant-quality desserts into people’s homes,” Alexandra “Alex” Chamberlain, Managing Director, explained to me. “The whole ethos of the company was—if you’re going to treat yourself to a dessert, do it properly. Really enjoy it. Go for the gold standard, and enjoy yourself.”

With that ethos in mind—if you’re going to be decadent with dessert, get a pure and decadent experience out of it—the company set out creating its product line. The company set to sourcing the best possible ingredients—like Fino de Aroma chocolate sustainably grown in Columbia. And Julian and his team were soon hard at work producing a line of lava cakes and pots de crème—puddings, possets, and ganaches ranging in flavors from salted caramel & chocolate to sticky toffee lava cake—each in an attractive reusable vessel.

Pots & Co.'s products range in flavor from salted caramel and chocolate to sticky toffee lava cake

“Not only are our ceramic vessels eye-catching on the shelf, but they’re highly reusable,” Alex explained. “They encourage people to cook themselves in the kitchen, or use them throughout the house and garden. We took the product to some of the high-level food emporiums in the U.K. They loved it, and it grew quickly from there.”

Some six years later, the company currently enjoys a following throughout the U.K. and Europe. And recently, Pots & Co. has taken its wares stateside—introducing select flavors to an underserved premium dessert market in the U.S.

Pots & Co. has been expanding its operations stateside, bringing premium restaurant-quality desserts to households throughout the U.S.

“Half of it was that we thought there was demand in the U.S., and half was serendipity,” Alex said. “Consumers were loving what we were doing in the UK and Europe when by chance my husband got a job in America and I had a chance to really examine the category here. It didn’t really exist. There wasn’t a premium, mainstream, single-serve dessert—outside of ice cream and pie—especially with our quality of ingredients or culinary excellence.”

The company soon after launched in Costco in the U.S., going on to establish partnerships with H-E-B in Texas and Fresh Direct in the New York-New Jersey area—with plans to expand in the near future.

Keep reading Deli Market News for more on all things dairy, deli, bakery, and specialty food.

Pots & Co.
Topics:


Simple done rightFicacci Olive Company - Mini Paper Tray Trio

Have a new product, press release or story idea?

Let us know

In This Story


A proper pudding should steal the meal. So we hand-make and steam-bake ours in their individual ceramic pots, from our kitchen in London. That way, we know you’ll get a perfect pud, every time.