The story starts in 1984 when Charles was wondering what would be next after giving up sheep farming in Cornwall. 

The Oil Merchant was started in the Autumn of 1984 when Charles Carey drove to Tuscany to buy his first olive oil. Charles was one of the first people to import single-estate-bottled extra virgin olive oil into the UK. He realised early on, as an ex-farmer, that much like chateau-bottled wine, olive oil of this quality spoke of the land it came from and was made with passion by its producers.

In January 1985, Tuscany was hit but a very severe frost which killed many of the olive trees. Tuscan oil became virtually unobtainable, but at least it gave olive oil a lot of publicity. The first supplier closed their press, never to reopen it again, but others came along, and most of them still are suppliers. Badia a Coltibuono was introduced to us by their wine importer, Marina Colonna by the wine and food writers, Cyril and Elizabeth Ray.

At first, The Oil Merchant was just Charles and his van. Then it was Charles and Sika. A succession of (mostly) lovely van-drivers came, often from New Zealand, to do the delivering, and then we needed help in the office too. Now, Bernard is the van driver and Kate and Issy are in the office.