One year in and the adventure continues.

A year ago today we said, ‘your toast deserves better’ and launched a brand of baked beans like this country had never seen.

We were rewarded by coverage in every major newspaper, a story on the One Show, awards from Virgin Startup and The Grocer, and listings in some of the country’s best food shops.

Even Richard Branson described us as ‘a pioneering business.’

We felt charmed.

But it hasn’t all been that easy.

Reinventing a category is hard. Short shelf-life is hard. Changing the habits of a generation is hard.

Looking back at the last year, I wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t think we could’ve had a better launch.

But we’ve learned a lot in that time. We’ve talked to customers, retailers, bloggers, journalists, industry experts. And today we’re putting that learning into practice.

So welcome to our first birthday.

Welcome to new packaging. Welcome to recipes with no added sugar. Welcome to a new product called Real Tomato.

Oh, and we changed the name from Proper Beans to Masons beans. Proper was great to describe what we’re doing now but we felt Masons would give us a stronger identity in the many years to come.

So welcome to Masons Beans.

Thanks for your support so far this year. We wouldn’t be here without you. We’ve got some big plans for the coming year so stay tuned.

Ben