BLOG IN A BOTTLE

London has really taken to the positive message of food in glass jars!

As the curtain closed on one capital’s most popular consumer events – the Country Living Spring Fair – hundreds of visitors had signed up to become friends of glass, and many more have a much clearer understanding of why it is important to use glass for food packaging.

And as people were queing up to enter the competition to ‘win a year’s supply of glass jam jars’ with the Jam Jar Shop, we had a surprise visit from one of last year’s competition winners.

Sally Francis, a friend of glass from Hampshire, had entered our competition at the Women’s Institute Real Jam Festival last November. She arrived on the Friends of Glass stand with a jar of her special « Zingy Orange Marmalade With Ginger « .

A former senior school head and now educational consultant, Sally finds time in her busy life to try many different recipes, but they all have one thing in common.

« I would only ever use a glass jar for my jams. It tastes and looks so much better, and I can use it time and time again. »

She was happy to share this message with the Country Living visitors.

Sally Francis (left) at the Friends of Glass area at Country Living with her friend Cathy Winfield and the Jam Jar Shop's Trevor Lorkings, and, of course, her jar of marmalade.

“Glass is great – not only because you can recycle it, but you can reuse it again and again”

Like the lady who we spoke to (pictured), Friends of Glass has had no trouble in finding new supporters at this year’s Country Living Spring Fair. With nearly 10,000 visitors flocking through the doors in just two days, the event is proving to be every bit as popular as its reputation suggests. The aisles are buzzing as visitors enjoy the wealth of inspiring ideas for home and garden.

Friends of Glass has barely had time to draw its breath as we talked glass packaging with all those who stopped by our stand. The competition to ‘win a year’s supply of jam jars’ with Jam Jar Shop is also proving a hit. Lots more entries and new Friends to meet are expected as the Fair builds to its crescendo at the weekend. We’ll keep you posted!

A beautiful Spring day heralded the opening of the popular Country Living Spring Fair (23-27 March, Business Design Centre, London), with hundreds of visitors eager to discover what delights the 400 exhibitors had to offer.

Friends of Glass was kept busy all day signing up lots of new Friends and receiving entries to our ‘win a year’s supply of jam jars’ competition. As guests on the Jam Jar Shop stand, we were ideally placed right next to the central isle and in clear sight of visitors as they moved through the show.

We were encouraged by the strong support for glass by all those we spoke to, with everyone without exception in agreement that they wanted glass packaging to remain a choice on store shelves.

One of the UK’s most keenly awaited consumer events of the year, the Country Living Spring Fair, kicks off this week at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London (23- 27th March).

Friends of Glass will be joining 400 other exhibitors who will be showcasing a fabulous range of lifestyle products and ideas throughout the five day event. We’re really looking forward to talking to as many of the 23,000 expected visitors as we can about Friends of Glass and encouraging them to show us their support by signing up to become a Friend.

We will be re-running our very successful ‘win a year’s supply of jam jars’ competition together with Jam Jar Shop, on whose stand we are guests (M114).

Friends of Glass and Jam Jar Shop collaborated during 2010 at two popular events – the WI Real Jam Festival and the BBC Good Food Show. We had well over a thousand conversations with visitors to these events and hundreds of new Friends join us. We were bowled over by the enthusiasm for glass with many consumers keen to find out how they could get the message to the retailers and brands that they want to be able to continue to choose glass.

Look out for our next post which will be reported directly from the Country Living Spring Fair.