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Partners in Brine

A Family Affair

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Who Are We?

Heather Haward

Caroline Haward

Heather believes you should experience something of simple joy, such as if you were coming to eat in her home: warmth, welcome, and good food is the ethos she founded The Company Shed upon.  

Proud to continue the family business, Caroline runs The Company Shed, seeing people from all over the world, film crews, and food critics, enjoy the seafood delights the Shed has become famous for.

The Company Shed

The Haward family are proud owners of the world famous restaurant The Company Shed on Mersea Island, Essex. Richard’s wife, Heather, opened The Company Shed, now run by Richard and Heather's daughter, Caroline, in the 1980’s. It initially started off as a fishmongers, but grew into a restaurant where you can take your own alcohol and bread. Heather's ethos and approach has always been to "keep it simple," an ethos and desire that has continued to this day.

A Growing Business

Richard Haward’s Oysters is a growing business and we are in the process of expanding and improving our operations in all areas, from sea to plate. As well as the retail unit at Borough Market, we export around the globe from our base on Mersea Island in Essex, where we are surrounded by the sea that produces our outstanding Mersea oysters. Exporting to places such as Taiwan, Barcelona, Dubai and Brussels, we have a growing reputation around the world. Here at Richard Haward’s Oysters you can mail order your Mersea oysters and they are available for next day delivery.

Richard Haward’s Oysters are also extremely proud to sell oysters to top London establishments, providing further motivation for us to produce the best oysters possible and maintain our fantastic reputation.

Supplying the Best

Our Mersea oysters are sent into some of the top restaurants in the UK, including:

Chiltern Firehouse, Caviar House, The Oyster Club, Bentley's, Garrick Club and Gold.  

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Sustainability

As well as providing our customers with the best oysters, Richard Haward’s Oysters is also working with the University of Essex and ENORI (The Essex Native Oyster Restoration Initiative) which is a collaboration between oystermen, government, conservationists and academia. Richard is also part of the Tollesbury and Mersea Native Oyster Fishery Company and has been on the board for many years. They are supporting the ENORI project and as Richard Haward’s Oysters have got 14 acres of oysterbeds, it is vital to the project’s success. It is designed to restore the declining stocks of native oysters in the Blackwater estuary. Due to harsh winters in the 1960’s, the native oyster neared extinction owing to their fragility and overfishing. It also has to compete for the nutrients from gigas (more commonly known as the rock oyster), which are much stronger. But the work we are doing at Richard Haward's Oysters, alongside others, is ensuring that the native oyster goes from strength to strength.

A Bright Future

Richard has always supported the local oystermen and fishermen, so being part of the ENORI project is something that the business is very proud to be involved in and, as native oyster stocks rise, this creates new potential employment and educates others on oysters, sustainability and the environment.

Working together, with others and nature, is an ethos Richard Haward's Oysters continues in the pursuit of, ensuring that the future of the oyster is a collaborative endeavour. The stunning Essex coastline draws people from all over the world, whilst at the same time, we send our humble oyster across the globe to be enjoyed by a wonderful diversity of people. At the heart of the Haward businesses is a belief in the "pearl of great price" that is community: working together to see one another thrive. Richard Haward's Oysters believe that, in working well with others, the oyster will continue to thrive.

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