Our Story

The business was launched in 2015, by Helen Rich (right).
The mission has always been to connect Bath’s amazing community of local food producers with a wider market.
Taste of Bath enables our family of local food producers, all within 25 miles of Bath, to connect with a new online marketplace, making it super easy for customers to buy local treats or to find the perfect gift from a fabulous local producer.
Likewise, we enable big business customers who want to support local to wow their clients and staff in a quick & easy way.
It’s been bit of a journey…
…but it all starts with our founder Helen!
Helen originally started out as a retail manager on the high street, but after 10 years she got bored of making the big cats richer! So…. she gave it all up, taught herself butchery and started her own pate company, Rich Pickings. Yeah bonkers eh!
Identifying a gap in the market, she decided to build an online platform to support local food producers. In retail you always have to follow what customers want and need – and so ever since Taste of Bath started in 2015, our customers have been a crucial part of our developmental journey.
 
The story so far…
November 2015: We launch, offering three set hampers in English Apple Crates, with 13 local producers on board.
March 2016: We launch ‘Create your Own’, a service enabling you to shop for groceries online or create your own hamper. This turns out to be a hugely popular service, allowing customers to personalise their shop!
June 2016: Alongside local MP Ben Howlett, we host an event at Westminster, to showcase Bath’s outstanding food and drink scene on a national stage
April 2017: We launch ‘The Bath Box’, a range of twenty hampers each presented in a signature Taste of Bath branded box, and carefully designed with different recipients in mind, from family to work colleagues! 
September 2017: We launch our Business Gifting Service, with the aim of offering Bath businesses the option of sending colleagues, clients and partners gift boxes with a truly local flavour! In October 2017, we launch our online Business Gifting Shop, a simple and easy package system designed for clients and offices alike.
June 2018: We partner with Pub in the Park for their first festival in Bath, bringing our local expertise and introducing some legendary celebrity chefs to Bath’s best food and drink
November 2018: We partner with local artist Alex T Sykes to create our bestselling Taste of Bath tea towel, and donate a portion of profits to local charities. Between 2018 and 2021, we raised £2250 through sales of our lovely tea towel for our charity partners FareShare South West.
March 2019: We win the Business Services Award at the 2019 Bath Life Awards! And on top of that, Helen is named one of the Top 100 Inspirational Women in the West by the West Women of the Year Awards
October 2019: CEO Helen Rich wins Business Person of the Year at the Bath Business Awards! We’re also finalists in the category of Best Small Business
March 2020: We help to host an event for The Princess Royal’s visit to Bath, providing food and drink for the dignitaries attending
November 2020: We launch our fabulous new website and add 14 new producers to our range
February 2021: We run a month-long campaign to support local NHS workers during the COVID 19 pandemic, donating delicious chocolate brownies to hospital staff for every Taste of Bath order placed - almost 400 brownies in total!
June 2021: Helen is invited to be a judge for the 2021 Bath Life Awards 
July 2021: Bath Foodbank becomes our new charity partner, with £1 from the sale of every tea towel going to support their vital work with local people in crisis.
September 2021: we launch our gorgeous new cardboard boxes - pretty, practical and 100% recyclable! 
March 2022: we are finalists in the Business Services category at the Bath Life Awards, and recieve a special Highly Commended award from the judges. We also run a campaign donating Mother's Day treats to the Bath Foodbank, for anyone who'd love to get their mum a gift but might not be able to.
September 2022: we launch an even bigger and better initiative to support Bath Foodbank, donating £1 for every single hamper sold!
October 2022: we partner with Bath Children's Literature Festival, Genesis Trust and Taste of Bath clients Knorr-Bremse to launch the Bath Bookbank, giving away brand-new children's books at Bath Foodbank's three drop-in locations
December 2022: over the course of the first Christmas with our new Bath Foodbank initiative, we raise a staggering £3500 with the help of our lovely customers!
April 2023: we throw an official launch party for the Bath Bookbank, which has proved itself a massive success
July 2023: we launch our brand new hamper collection, starring five brand new producers and lots of new products from our existing TOB family!
September 2023: Jo Cox, who's been managing our warehouse since 2017, joins the Taste of Bath board of directors as Operations Director and a 33.33% shareholder.
Now we offer an award-winning business gifting service, and we’ve become a household name in the city and further afield, but we still preserve the very same ethos as when we started: supporting small producers, promoting incredible local food and drink, and making it so easy to shop local there’s just no excuse not to. 
You can find out more about our story so far on the fabulous Taste of Bath blog, here. Everything we’ve built has been in response to customer needs and feedback. If you have any feedback and want to be heard – please contact us!