Jellycat is a private, London-headquartered company, according to CNBC and PA Media. Companies House lists another company, Jellycat Toy Company Limited, not a person, as the controller of Jellycat Limited. CNBC names Jelly Holdings as the owner; Business Matters says it is Jersey-based and controlled by the Gatacre family's trust.
This site is not connected with Jellycat. Everything below comes from public records and published reports, each named and dated.
Who owns Jellycat, according to the records?
The record is a chain, not a single name. Companies House shows that the person with significant control over Jellycat Limited is a company, Jellycat Toy Company Limited. The entry lists ownership of shares of 75% or more, voting rights of 75% or more, and the right to appoint or remove directors.
One step up, the entries for Jellycat Toy Company Limited describe a holding of at least 75% of the shares, with the holder able to direct the trustees of a trust. The people named have a correspondence address in St Helier, Jersey, and were notified on 6 April 2016. This page does not repeat their names or details.
Beyond the register, CNBC says the company is owned by Jelly Holdings. According to Business Matters, Jelly Holdings is based in Jersey and is controlled by the Gatacre family's trust. PA Media reports a dividend of about £179 million due to the parent, Jelly Holdings, for the 2025 financial year. It adds that the money is understood to stay in the group to be reinvested.
| Step | What the source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Jellycat Limited | Controller on file is Jellycat Toy Company Limited | Companies House |
| Jellycat Toy Company Limited | At least 75% of the shares, held with power over a trust's trustees; Jersey correspondence address | Companies House |
| Jelly Holdings | Named as owner and as parent company; Jersey-based | CNBC, PA Media, Business Matters |
| The trust | Described as the Gatacre family's trust | Business Matters only |
That is why "the Gatacre brothers own it" is not a reliable flat statement. The entries read for this page do not say who benefits from the trust. Companies House also says it does not verify what companies file. This page did not read a Companies House entry for Jelly Holdings, so what it says about that company comes from news reports.
When was Jellycat founded?
The brand dates from 1999. PA Media says the company was established in 1999 by Thomas Gatacre. According to Wikipedia, it was co-founded in London that year by two brothers, Thomas and William Gatacre. Business Matters says Thomas Gatacre began with a modest stand at a trade show in London, helped by his brother William. Jellycat's own statement also says the company was established in 1999 in London.
The registers give different dates, because a company's legal birthday is not the brand's.
- Jellycat Limited was incorporated on 2 July 1998.
- Jellycat Toy Company Limited was incorporated on 3 December 1987. Its list of previous names includes The Manhattan Toy Company Limited, and Monostop Limited appears in the same list as its first name.
- Its office address on file is the Westworks Building at 195 Wood Lane, in west London (postcode W12 7FQ).
A list of old company names tells you what a company was once called on the record. It does not tell you what the brand did before 1999, so nothing more is read into it here.
Where does the name Jellycat come from?
Jellycat tells its own story as a fable. In an archived copy of its our-story page, captured in 2025, the ninth generation of cat opened Jellycat Studios in London in 1999, and the name goes back to a single cat crowned with a special Jelly hat. That is brand mythology, not recorded history. PG Buzz, citing the Financial Times, says the brand was named after a suggestion from Thomas Gatacre's son.
Who runs Jellycat?
PA Media quotes Mandy Pugh as Jellycat's chief executive. In the Companies House filing history for Jellycat Toy Company Limited, Ms Mandy Maureen Pugh is recorded as appointed a director on 11 June 2026. On the same date, the directorship of Arnaud Maurice Jean Meysselle is recorded as ended. William Edward Gatacre's departure as a director is recorded on 11 January 2023.
A director appointment is not the same thing as a job title, so treat them as two separate facts. If an older article names a different chief executive, check its date before relying on it.
Where are Jellycat toys made?
The answer here comes from Jellycat's own modern slavery statement, which covers the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The company's site was read through an archived copy on web.archive.org, dated 3 March 2026, so the country list may since have changed.
- Jellycat says its main soft toy lines are made in Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia.
- It says a small volume of products outside those lines, plus promotional items, is made in China.
- It says that in summer 2024 it began working with a new supplier in Bangladesh, with production and shipments expected to begin later in 2025. This page has not confirmed whether that happened.
The statement says factories must be authorised and approved before any production happens there, and that no stage of making its soft toys and books may be handed to someone else. It also says Jellycat's own staff, based full time in Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, deal directly with the factories in those countries, and that a production team in Seoul, South Korea, works with suppliers.
On checks, Jellycat says it requires every factory used by its suppliers to be audited each year by a third party, under a recognised programme (SMETA or ICTI). It also says its audits identified no issues on forced labour, modern slavery or human trafficking. Those are the company's own words; this page has not verified them. We have not visited any factory, and which toy is made where is not something these sources say.
How big is Jellycat, and what is it worth?
No valuation turned up in the sources, and this page does not offer one. Published accounts give turnover and profit instead, and the figures below are past results, not a forecast.
| Reported by | Turnover | Profit before tax |
|---|---|---|
| CNBC | Up 66% to £333 million | £139 million, up from £67 million the year before |
| PA Media | Up 43% to £450 million | Up 98% to £240 million |
CNBC also says Jellycat's revenue hit nearly $450 million in 2024. That is in dollars, while PA Media's £450 million is in pounds, so do not read the two as the same figure. The latest full accounts filed at Companies House cover the period ending 31 December 2025. Business Matters says the group expanded its UK workforce by 137 and had an average monthly headcount of 349 in 2025.
What this page cannot tell you
Records were read on 31 October 2026. Companies House says it does not verify what companies file. The manufacturing details are the brand's own statement, read from an archived copy. The trust's beneficiaries and Jelly Holdings' own filings are outside what was found. For anything that matters, such as a business decision, go to the Companies House pages linked above and read the current entries yourself.
