A North Yorkshire based sausage company are straying from their traditional pork-based roots by adding a meat-free line to their award winning range.
HECK, run by the Keeble family in Bedale, was set up four years ago to produce the highest quality sausages and burgers using quality farm-assured meat. Their latest venture, a range of delicious vegetarian sausages, burgers and balls, were launched in Waitrose this week and are already proving to be a hit with their legion of loyal fans.
The new range which is aimed at consumers looking for good quality and great tasting ‘free from’ food, will join their range of lower fat chicken sausages and burgers which have proven increasingly popular with slimming and free-from groups and generally with anyone who loves a good sausage but is conscious of what they’re eating.
HECK, whose name was inspired by the family motto ‘what the heck?’, is now being run by the next generation of Keeble’s, siblings Ellie, Roddy, Jamie and Guy who, along with several friends, have grown the business and now have over 31% of the market share.
The family who have a strong farming heritage, have a completely hands-on approach to their products and work closely with all their farms as well as creating and making all their own seasoning on site, meaning that they can control their recipes and what goes into every product, a cornerstone of the company’s ethos. The result is a totally transparent, no nonsense approach, which is proving popular with consumers.
Having recently won the Telegraph’s Festival of Business Award, HECK have also been ranked 4th in the latest Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100, which saw only eight Yorkshire companies make the list.
Not ones to rest on their laurels however, The HECK team have also just announced plans to start work on a new state-of-art site this year which will include a factory, visitor centre and food shop and doubling their 38–strong workforce in the process.