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Article taken from the Essex Echo, Monday 19th February 2007

Love jars are a sweet success By Tom King.

Tom Hatley's feelings for girlfriend Sophie McShera were transparent - they came in a big glass jar. Casting around for a novel way to show his affection to mark their first anniversary, he hit on the idea of packing love messages and other goodies into the canisters from Woolworths.

The jar was such a mega-hit that Tom has gone into business selling the jars to other lovers the world over. He explained: "Sophie likes being told how special she is, but like most blokes I tend to be a bit forgetful in getting the message through. I thought of the idea of putting my romantic feelings for her down as little messages on scraps of paper.

"There were 24 different messages in all, and I mixed them up in the jar with some of her favourite sweets. I called it Sophie's Feelgood Jar." Feel good Sophie certainly did "It went down really, really well with her," said Tom. "More surprisingly, all her housemates liked it as well. They started to say that I should make the jars into a business." Encouraged by this, Tom, a business student at Brunel University, entered a Dragon's Den style contest. It involved ten universities in the London area. The jar took third prize. Now the couple, both of Sedgemoor, Shoebury, are selling the jars, for £9.99, at farmers' markets and through their website.

Tom has also embarked on a second series of jars, designed for offices. It contains tongue-in-cheek messages like: "You're truly valued" and "Thank God we chose you." There's been just one downside. "I had to borrow the jar back from Sophie to use it for promotions," Tom says. "She wasn't too pleased."

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Sophie McShera, 21, Leeds, West Yorkshire

‘Heart of Glass’

I couldn’t believe I’d been going out with my boyfriend, Tom Hatley, for a year. Being students at Brunel University, we’d agreed not to spend a fortune on presents for our first anniversary.

But as I held up the present he’d just given me, I couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. ‘It’s not a trip to Paris’ Tom, 21, Joked. It certainly isn’t, I thought as I tugged at the wrapping paper.

My heart melted as he explained what the jar was for. ‘It’s filled with love notes,’ he told me. ‘When you need a pick-me-up, you can read one of them.’ It was also packed with my favourite sweets – fizzy lollies and chewy toffees.

‘I love it!’ I gushed. One by one, I pulled the notes out and read the messages. You’re amazing, one said. I love you lots, read another. ‘Look what Tom’s made for me the next day, showing my housemates. They were like a pack of wolves grabbing at Tom’s messages. ‘How sweet!’ they cried. ‘My boyfriend never does anything this romantic for me!’ Amy Prosser, 21, grumbled.

Before long, word had spread all over uni about my jar, and three months later, I caught Tom red-handed trying to steal it out of my bedroom. ‘Put that down!’ I bellowed. ‘I just wanted to borrow it,’ he whimpered. ‘Why?’ I demanded. ‘Because I want to make more and sell them,’ he explained. I thought about it for a minute. ‘That’s a great idea,’ I grinned. We got stuck into decorating the jars and filling them with sweets and messages. We decided to sell them for £9.99 each.

Then we set up a stall in the student union, which we ran once a week. ‘That’s 50 jars we’ve sold today!’ Tom gasped this year on Valentines Day. ‘We should set up a website to sell them on too,’ I suggested. And that’s exactly what we did when we launched www.thefeelgoodpeople.com. The response has been phenomenal.

We’ve sold almost 400 jars and have received orders from the U.S.A and Australia! Best of all Tom’s made enough money to take me on that romantic trip to Paris. I feel so proud that what started off as a special pressie is making other people happy. And I’m even more proud that I have the most romantic boyfriend in the world.

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