Hampson Honey: from side hustle to supermarket shelves
A hobby turned side hustle has become a full-time business for Jimboomba’s Hampson family, whose Hampson Honey brand is now available at Woolworths – and the family plans to make the venture even bigger.
Karin Hampson, who owns and runs Hampson Honey with her husband Carl, says the growth of their business took her by surprise – especially as she was less than keen on Carl’s new hobby at the beginning.
The mum of 3 says 13 years ago, a friend introduced Carl to beekeeping, and he was hooked.
‘He’s always been a farmer at heart and was immediately drawn to it,’ she says.
‘Initially I was against the idea because I was scared of getting stung, but I gave in because he was so passionate about it. We got 1 backyard beehive over a decade ago and never would I ever have imagined it would be our full-time careers one day.’
Not only was Karin not keen on bees at the beginning – she wasn’t a fan of honey either, until she tasted the difference between the delicious honey from their own beehives compared to honey she had tasted before.
‘I thought all honey tasted like what I have had before, and I wasn’t a fan of that taste, so honey wasn’t even something on my grocery list. Little did I know once I had a taste of our own honey, all my preconceived ideas about honey went out the window at that point. This is what real honey tastes like and I love it! Now we use honey on everything, and we have replaced sugar completely. The kids love it too, and our household would get through about a kilo of honey a week,’ she says.
‘Honey tastes different depending on what the bees forage on so we can always make sure Hampson Honey tastes really good by ensuring our bees get the best nectar nature has to offer.’
The couple bought their friend’s small beekeeping business 10 years ago, and made it their full-time gig 6 years ago, leaving successful careers to do so – Karin in marketing, and Carl as a professional squash player and coach.
‘It was scary to go full-time but we needed to do that in order to grow the business in the way we wanted to. It was scary but necessary,’ says Karin.
“Once I had a taste of our own honey, all my preconceived ideas about honey went out the window at that point. This is what real honey tastes like and I love it!”
— Karin
The couple moved to a bigger property in Jimboomba and got stuck in. Karin, then a mum of newborn twins, says that time in her life was all a blur.
‘When my kids were small and with Carl being away so often to attend to our bees, it was a massive challenge, but when I look at what Carl does travelling long distances to apiary sites, working in the heat and getting stung daily, I really can’t complain about how busy I was,’ she says.
Now, Hampson Honey is stocked in Woolworths across Queensland and Northern New South Wales, along with a range of independent grocers. The business has hives across Queensland and Carl travels often to tend to them and move them when needed.
‘We are really so excited for the opportunity Woolworths has given us and we feel very blessed, but we have the capacity to do more and would love to get Coles and Aldi on board, as well as more independents,’ says Karin.
‘Our foot is not off the pedal yet. This is a very exciting phase – everything that we have put so much time, effort and money into is coming into fruition – and our local community has really gotten behind us too for which we are so eternally grateful.’
Karin says she’s confident once people try their honey, they won’t look back.
‘What makes our honey different is that we only use the best A-grade honeys for our retail range. Our honey is also raw, which means it’s never heated past hive temperature, so all the beneficial properties do not get destroyed during the packing process. Once people try it, I think they will see the difference like I did, and we will have a happy customer for life,’ she says.
‘Being in Woolworths means customers can have the convenience of going to their regular supermarket but getting the same quality you would get buying direct from a beekeeper. It’s become our life goal to deliver an excellent quality product to customers so they can experience really yummy honey like we get to enjoy every day.’
