About Us

 

From our family of producers and our family company since 1984. 

Our new website, Grove & Muse, launched in the spring of 2026, but that is not the beginning of our story. In 1984 my father, Charles, began The Oil Merchant Ltd, the first olive oil specialists in the UK, with the aim to champion the small-scale producer and share their carefully learnt craft with shops and customers around the UK. When I joined the family-fold in 2018, selling direct to customer was a much smaller affair – we had a few trusty private customers who called to place their orders (our then website was not able to take payment). Over the years we got to know these customers well and it is this personalised service we aim not to lose now we have an online shop.

The first iteration of The Oil Merchant online came during lockdown as a result of an increasing number of calls from loyal customers who could not get to the shop. It was built by me, an incredibly un tech-savvy person, who quietly launched it one Friday morning. We were all taken aback to log in on the Monday morning to see that somebody had found our website and ordered a case of Colonna olive oil. Over the years our website and number of customers have grown, although wholesale remains our core business.

So as not to confuse our wholesale customers, and after much deliberation, we decided to rebrand our online offering and thus, Grove & Muse, was created.

The name pays homage to those at the root of our company; the groves where the olives in our oils come from and the muses who inspire us daily – from producers to storytellers. It also pays homage to where The Oil Merchant started, in a spare bedroom at a house on Ashchurch Grove and where our office and showroom can now be found on Goldhawk Mews (or Godhawk Muse as one customer continues to call it).

As ever, Kate, Sophie, Katie and I are always at the end of the telephone if you would like advice, suggestions or have any questions about any of our wonderful products. Our website is still developing and if you have any suggestions on how to make it more user friendly, we would love to hear from you. 

Issy x