Recipe for succession in place at Hawkshead Relish

A famous Lake District artisan food business is planning for the future with a new generation of the 25 year old business taking over day to day running of the Hawkshead Relish Company.

Founding couple Mark and Maria Whitehead have handed over the day-to-day running of the business to managing director Jonathan Robb and their daughter Izzy Whitehead, who is the company’s Brand Manager.

Izzy’s sister Abbie is looking after their flagship retail store in Hawkshead, where Mark and Maria Whitehead began making their first artisan batches of relish and chutney to accompany meals they served up in their small café in Hawkshead in 1999.

Hawkshead Relish 25th Anniversary

Maria Whitehead MBE, co-founder of Hawkshead Relish Co, said: ‘’When we started out in our café in Hawkshead making a few condiments to serve with our dishes, little did we know what Hawkshead Relish would become a quarter of a century later. To say that we are proud of our whole team is such an understatement,  and we’re looking forward to the next chapter in the growth of the Hawkshead Relish Company, as we step back a little more and let our MD Jonathan Robb and fellow director and our youngest daughter Izzy take the business forward and develop it for the next 25 years.’’

Multi-award-winning Hawkshead Relish has become synonymous with the Lake District over the years, tasted by many during a visit to England’s favourite national park.

Just two years after starting the business, the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 forced Maria and Mark to scale up their production of preserves and condiments.

In 2019 Maria’s cookery book Embellish With Relish, marked the business’s 20th anniversary in 2019, and is now about to be reprinted for the third time.

Today the company produces a range of over 100 handmade products at their production premises near Esthwaite Water, including their classic Westmorland Chutney and their innovative, best-selling Black Garlic Ketchup.

Hawkshead Relish Shop credit Sheenah Alcock

They also manufacture products for Tom Kerridge, Harvey Nichols, Booths and Lakeland Ltd, and others, as well as retailing to over 500 outlets in the UK and export to over 20 countries around the globe.

The business employs 28 local people across three sites.