Why sausage firm Heck has seen its sales sizzle to £23.6m

The North Yorkshire-based manufacturer saw its sales grow by 11.7 per cent, an increase of £2.5m.

However despite the boost pre-tax profits fell by 22.7 per cent, from £828,260 to £640,401 and gross margins fell from 27 per cent to 24 per cent, something Heck attributed to an increased spend in research and development, automation and freezing capacity.

The continued growth of the business – which now has listings across the big four supermarkets – also meant Bedale-based Heck’s administrative costs had risen from £4m to £4.4m last year.

The company massively increased the capacity of its headquarters in Kirklington by 25 per cent, an investment of £4m.

The period to July 31 last year also saw the supplier also phased out its Harrogate Sausage Co brand as it focused on its core businesses in fresh pork and chicken sausages, plant-based meat alternatives and frozen sausages.

Founder Andrew Keeble said: “That investment in freezing capacity in particular means we’re in really good shape. We’re in all the retailers and are operating across all three categories.”

Mr Keeble is on record as saying he expects the firm to turnover close to £50m during the 2020 calendar year, buoyed by strong sales from its new frozen range, which had secured listings in both Sainsbury’s and Waitrose over the past month and offered shoppers a “premium” option in the freezer aisle.

“We see a huge opportunity in frozen food because we can deliver on many levels, creating a premium sausage category designed for people who want to reduce their environmental impact and also cut down on food waste and packaging”, added Heck co-founder Jamie Keeble.

“We predict our frozen range will be around 30 per cent of our business in 2020.”

In the period following its year-end, the business had also faced a number of challenges to continue production through the coronavirus crisis.

These included introducing social distancing in its factory and managing key workers and critical technical people in self isolation.

Heck recently announced it had produced an extra 60,000 frozen sausages to give away free to local charities, care homes and local communities that are struggling to source essential food at this time.

It is also offering a discounted service for NHS workers who want a box of fresh bangers and burgers delivered direct to their homes.

Employees adapting to lockdown

Heck employs more than 180 people, several of them under 25, many of whom have had to immediately adapt how they work when lockdown started.

Among them were 22-year-olds Toby Miller and William Ford from Harrogate.

Their pre-pandemic roles were part of the show team at Heck that sampled sausages to one million visitors at county, food and fitness shows across the country.

When lockdown was imposed the pair were redeployed to the production line.

However the pair are still helping with spreading the firm’s message by producing Tic Tok videos in their lunch hour to cheer up fans.