The brand was formerly owned by Premier Foods, until it was sold along with the factory in Histon to Hain Celestial for £200 million in October 2012.

In 1884, the business was incorporated as William Hartley & Sons Limited and in 1886, it moved to Aintree, Liverpool where a new factory was built.

[3] A second factory in Bermondsey, South London opened in 1901, supplied with pots and jars in its early decades from a facility in Rutherglen, Scotland acquired in 1898.

[6][7] In 2020, Hartley's No Added Sugar Apple Jelly Pot won the Lausanne Index Prize - Bronze Award.

[8] Two years after the new factory had been opened in Aintree, Hartley constructed a purpose built village for the key employees in his company.