Machinery investment as demand for vegan food increases

Yorkshire sausage and burger company HECK! Food has invested £1.5m in new machinery.

This is on the back of huge demand for its vegan and chicken sausages and burgers at the beginning of 2020, both in the UK and overseas.

HECK! has launched four new vegan ranges onto the UK high street in January, including it’s first “meat free” sausage into Morrisons, which is a direct competitor to Richmond meat free and Quorn.

The company has upgraded its vegan factory with a £500,000 injection and also installed a £1m robotic chicken sausage making machine at Sausage World in Bedale. Other launches include a heart shaped “vegan valentines” – PECK! – into Asda, a vegan frankfurter, an ultimate vegan burger and a chicken and sage chipolata.

Business co-founder and sales director, Jamie Keeble, said: “We are the UK’s fastest growing vegan brand and the vegan sector will be 30% of business this year, mainly export.

“We are literally taking HECK! round the world to the Middle and Far East, US and across Europe, hence the £500,000 investment into new equipment making production more efficient.

“We are also seeing a real growth in the “Megan” market – flexitarian – as people look at introducing more plant based food into their diet and also different types of meat, such as chicken.

“We now sell more chicken than pork sausages and the new robotic chicken line will increase production capacity and enable us to produce over a one million sausages a day.”