The Baxters story begins in 1868 when, with a little encouragement, George Baxter borrowed £100 from an uncle and other relatives, and opened a small grocery shop in Fochabers.
Here fortune intervened, for the district of Moray happens to be one of Britain's great natural larders. Fochabers itself stands in the Laich of Moray, a coastal plain whose sandy loam is ideal for growing carrots, turnips, leeks and potatoes. A short way inland, on the warm slopes of the Grampian Hills, grow superb raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants. Beyond are the deer forests and grouse moors. The nearby lochs and woods are the habitat of wild duck, pheasants and partridges. Prime beef cattle graze the low-lying meadows, and through all this glorious landscape, the Spey winds its way to the Moray Firth, famed in turn for lobsters, crabs, scallops and prawns.
George's wife Margaret, started making jams and jellies in the back of the shop. Once her jams had found their way to Gordon Castle, their superb quality ensured that they swiftly became popular with the Duke's friends up and down the land. Thus the Baxter reputation began to spread.
When he started the business, George Baxter constantly exhorted himself, and those around him, to "be different, be better", little guessing that these words would remain an inspiration to his great-grandchildren, over one hundred and thirty years later.
George and Margarets son William married Ethel in 1914, shortly after they bought a plot of land from the Duke of Gordon, where they built a small factory. While Ethel supervised the jam making in huge copper pans, William travelled all over Scotland by train and bicycle passionately advocating the quality of his wife's preserves. Each evening he dutifully wrote home with a list of orders he had taken that day.
Cleverly blending old ideas with new and drawing on the abundance of fine local produce, Ethel created an exceptional range of soups among them the famous Royal Game Soup. She also pioneered the canning of soft fruits at the time when the whole process was in its infancy.
Ethel's talent as an innovator, combined with her husband’s brilliance as a salesman, made Baxters a formidable force in the 20's and 30's. It wasn't long before orders were flooding in from Harrods, and Fortnum & Mason in London.
At the end of the war, the next generation of the Baxter family, Gordon and Ian, came to join the family firm. They found themselves in a business which had scraped through the bleak years of 1939 to 1945 making a little jam for the NAAFI and not much else.
Gordon, by now managing director, threw himself into his twin roles as new product developer and one-man sales force. In 1952 he met Ena Robertson. Later the same year they were married and Gordon gained not only a wife, but the other half of what was to develop into a quite exceptional business partnership.
Gordon had the urge to travel, to take his fine Scottish products abroad. Finally in 1959, laden down with samples of jam and marmalade, he set off for the United States of America. He returned bursting with new ideas.
Gordon and Ena made numerous return trips. Ena's cooking demonstrations were seen by millions of American TV viewers. They hosted mammoth Scottish charity banquets, complete with pipers and singers and an all-Baxter menu.
Ena and her development team were also busy with new varieties of beetroot, new flavours of jam and marmalade and new chutneys and sauces. The list of Baxter products was getting longer and better all the time.
Baxters became the first company to fit jars with twist off caps.
The 80's saw the business growing. Baxters traditional soups were already well-established as the leading premium brand in the UK. During this time consumer tastes were changing rapidly, with a growing demand for different more exotic flavours.
It was a proud day for everyone at Baxters when in 1993 HRH The Prince of Wales visited Fochabers to help celebrate 125 years of food making at Baxters.
In 1992 Gordon handed over managing directorship to his daughter Audrey, and the fourth generation of Baxters took up the reins. By 1999 she was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive and with her brother Andrew was tasked to take Baxters forward into the new millennium.
Audrey and her management team run a company of which her great-grandparents could never even have dreamed. The sheer scale of the operation, the science and technology that underlies it, the sophisticated sales, marketing and distribution - these things are light years away from the business that was conducted in the little grocery shop in Fochabers.
