The Great British Business Off

In honour of the Great British Bake Off final this week, we have handpicked a selection of our most favourite Great British businesses!

If you’re looking to shop more intentionally this year, why not reduce the carbon footprint of your Christmas haul by supporting more British businesses? From timeless pottery to luxurious loungewear, Great Britain is home to enough incredible brands that you needn’t shop elsewhere!

So put your PJs on, grab a cuppa and light a candle, it’s time to read all about the Great Businesses of Britain…

Emma Bridgewater

In a very British turn of events, Emma Bridgewater’s eponymous brand was born in 1984 after she tried and failed to find a birthday present for her mother. Emma sought a fun, colourful cup and saucer to complement the warm and welcoming spirit of her mother’s North Oxford kitchen, but was met with only dainty and formal or robust and decidedly unromantic options.

In the forty years since, Emma Bridgewater has blossomed into a classic modern pottery brand famous for their sweet sponge-dabbed designs. Their clay is dug out of British soil itself, from sites in Devon, Cornwall, Wales, and Staffordshire, before being transported to their factory in Stoke-On-Trent for casting, firing, decorating, and glazing.

Sophie Allport

As with all of the best businesses, Sophie Allport had a humble beginning. Created at Sophie’s Battersea kitchen table in 2007, the brand has since flourished into a British family favourite, best known for their country living and wildlife-themed homewares. Their designs are expertly handpainted by Sophie herself from her countryside home in Lincolnshire.

Their iconic designs add a real archetypal English charm to simple kitchen linens or crockery; in terms of products that are practical and pretty, affordable and luxury, high-quality and whimsical, Sophie Allport wares tick every box.

Desmond & Dempsey

Brixton-based Desmond & Dempsey is a high-quality nightwear brand created by Aussie-English duo Molly and Joel. Their love story culminated in Molly’s moving to London, where she found herself desperately searching for a good pair of PJs, to no avail.

And so the idea for Desmond & Dempsey was born. Crafted from breathable, natural fabrics (cotton, linen, and silks), their pyjamas, robes, and nightgowns are adorned in hand-painted designs inspired by cultures from around the world. High-quality loungewear that is as durable as it is attractive.

This wonderful pyjama brand was born from the couple’s love for softer life; an ode to Sunday, as they say. Desmond & Dempsey demands that leisure be taken as seriously as work. They encourage people to welcome downtime more wholeheartedly, to switch off and wholly embrace times of rest.

Home County Co.

You didn't think we'd write a blog post about Great British Businesses and miss an opportunity to hype ourselves up, did you?

Here at the Home County Co., we’ve scoured the length and breadth of the beautiful British Isles discovering the landscapes, the stories and the secrets that make Britain great.

We’ve captured the very essence of Great Britain through a range of fragrant, nostalgic, and heartfelt scents. These unique aromas have the power to unlock precious memories, and transport us back to a special time and place for reminiscences you’ll cherish forever.

From our workshop on a farm in rural Buckinghamshire we hand-pour delightfully scented soy candles, reed diffusers and hand care products in small batches to ensure even scent distribution for perfect products every time.

Shop Our County Candles

Cornishware

Founded in 1864 by Thomas Goodwin Green, a builder turned potter, Cornishware operated under the brand name “TG Green” for almost 150 years. TG Green’s teapots, pudding bowls, and cooking dishes quickly became staple items in the kitchens of working class families in the North of the UK. They soon began exporting their wares to Australasia and Europe and, at the turn of the twentieth century, TG Green introduced their iconic blue and white striped design.

Despite surviving the many challenges of the 1900s, it was the increased trade from foreign ceramics manufacturers that resulted in the business falling into financial administration in 2007. All was not lost, however– Cornishware was resurrected by a trio of British investors in 2008.

Since then, the brand has gone from strength to strength. In 2017, they began using authentic Cornish clay from a quarry dubbed “The Cornish Alps” in St Austell. Then, in their West Country pottery, their skilled team pour a liquified version of this Cornish clay into their moulds before they are expertly sponged, fettled, fired, painted, waxed, and glazed.

Biscuiteers

This couldn’t be considered a well-rounded selection of Great British Businesses if we didn’t include some biscuits, right?

Biscuiteers is the UK’s original hand-iced biscuit company, launched in 2007, under the banner “why send flowers when you can send Biscuiteers?”. Founder and CEO Harriet Hastings created Biscuiteers in response to a gap in the luxury food gifting market.

Though the brand has grown enormously since its inception, they still make and ice their biscuits in exactly the same way; factory-made consumables could never outshine homemade baked goodies, which is why each and every Biscuiteers biscuit is baked and iced by hand.

If you loved the sound of our candles and reed diffusers, and would like to browse some other county-inspired scents, you can shop the entire county collection here.

The County Collection