Harriet Hastings founded Biscuiteers in 2007 with her husband, Stevie Congdon. They live in London and Suffolk with their 4 children, and are co-directors of London catering company Lettice. Harriet is also MD of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world.

‘We launched Biscuiteers in 2007 with the mission to offer a more unique, stylish and personalised gifting solution under the banner why send flowers when you can send Biscuiteers? We decided to launch collections of beautifully iced biscuits in fabulous packaging, a completely new way of gifting that would get people talking. We started planning Biscuiteers properly in the spring of 2007, testing our biscuit recipes in Stevie’s catering kitchens. The media seemed to get it immediately and were very taken with our launch fashion collections, which remain some of our bestselling lines. Suddenly we had orders, and lots of them! It became apparent that we couldn’t continue to camp in Stevie’s catering kitchens and office. We moved into our first proper bakery in November 2007.

From the very beginning we worked with artists, people who understood the design aesthetic we wanted to create and would enjoy the time and care that goes into making beautiful presents. They were the beginnings of the extraordinary team that has helped us grow and develop the business. One of the marvellous thing about biscuits – apart from eating them of course – is their flexibility. They are truly a blank canvas on which to express your creativity. We think there is absolutely a biscuit for every occasion and have spent the last 10 years testing that theory! The business has grown enormously but we still make and ice our biscuits in exactly the same way. They are all handmade and part of the excitement has been building a business based on old fashioned production techniques. Every single biscuit is lovingly made from the start to finish and each one is therefore totally individual.’