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Camilla
Camilla lives just outside the foodie destination of Ludlow, the early days of Ludlow Food Festival some 30 years ago definitely form part of her inspiration for What A Pickle! Her three children Harry, Oscar and Tilly are now more or less(!) out in the working world, allowing Camilla to focus on the business and its growth. Time out will almost certainly be outside either in the garden or with horses. Inside invariably involves time the kitchen which is never a chore!
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Emma
Emma has always been passionate in promoting (and enjoying) produce from artisan businesses and is very proud to be part of the wonderful What A Pickle! & Cheese Nibble empire! She admits she isn’t a great cook and avoids the kitchen where possible but appreciates good flavours – a big perk of her role is being chief taster of the wonderful new flavours that Camilla produces! In her spare time, Emma and her 3 daughters are quite horse obsessed and most weekends are off competing around the country! Emma is very lucky to live in the beautiful Welsh countryside, just off Offa’s Dyke Path and also runs a B&B from her home.
2007
Where it all started…the very first jar of Tomato Chilli Jam was made in Camilla’s Kitchen, the labels in the early days were a little different......
Word got around about the jam and the first order was taken to Farmers Greengrocers in Ludlow! This shop was the first to stock What A Pickle! they helped supply me with copious quantities of ripe tomatoes in the early days of home production and have supported us ever since
2008
What A Pickle! was outsourced to a local manufacturer to help with the steady growth of the company. Camilla in the early days was present on every batch's production to make sure the final product was exactly how it should be.
2009
New flavours were added to the range and we received an exciting contract to supply 450 ASDA stores nationwide! We did this with a different branding, it was quite a steep learning curve!
2011
Camilla moved back to her roots and hometown of Ludlow with her family and decided to stop supplying national supermarkets.
2012
The focus was on finding and building relations with independent stockists as well as marketing What A Pickle! at Food Festivals.
2016
The brand took on a new look with Camilla’s handwriting forming the product font for the labels!
2018
The first What A Pickle! gift box was designed and launched alongside the tasty Fig and Mustard Sauce.
2019
Emma Hallett joined the business to help with Sales and Marketing and we attended our first bunch of brilliant trade shows including the Farm Shop and Deli Show, The Spring Fair at The NEC and Top Drawer at Olympia, London.
More gift boxes were made including the Mini Chilli Duo and we launched our first egg free mayo 'Simply Mayo’!
2020
Covid happened!
This time at home meant the company could focus on growth and direction - resulting in more yummy products being developed!
This was also the year ‘Chutney for Cheese’ was born after it being the most asked for product we were yet to create!
2021
The year that saw the launch of the Meat Sauces range!
We also developed a gift box for Holland and Barrett for their Christmas range which was stocked in every store in the UK!
2022
This was a big year…
Our Béarnaise Sauce won a Great Taste 1 Star which is a huge accolade in the food world, What A Pickle! became an LLP and Emma was made a partner!
2023
Another huge year!
What A Pickle! acquired another local foodie business Cheese Nibbles, Shropshire based creators of delicious, savoury cheese sablés!
2024
Cheese Nibbles Pistachio Sablés won a Gold award at the Farm Shop and Deli product awards!
2025
There’s so many exciting things lined up for the future of What A Pickle! and Cheese Nibbles… watch this space!