Sizzling export success for sausage company
A SAUSAGE producer that has helped feed British forces in Afghanistan is celebrating a string of export contracts.
The British Premium Sausage Company, based in Bradford, has built up a significant export business over the past two years, picking up contracts in places as diverse as Malta, Ghana, Qatar and Thailand.
And after recently exhibiting again at the world’s largest food and drink trade show, Sial, in Paris, the company hopes to expand into new markets including China and Hong Kong.
Director Ian Cundell said that UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the Yorkshire-based Food and Drink Exporters Association (FDEA) had helped to grow the export side of the business, which accounts for a third of its annual turnover.
As a direct result of the export success, the company has taken on three new members of staff, with plans to create a further three jobs.
The business manufactures and supplies sausages to hotel groups, foodservice companies and catering butchers around the country.
Mr Cundell said: “We had always been interested in exporting our sausages, and in October 2010, UKTI helped us to exhibit for the first time at Sial. We weren’t expecting much, but we came away with a significant order from Malta – which is currently our biggest export market.
“Since then, we have picked up orders from around the world. I have attended a number of trade missions and shows, with support from UKTI and the FDEA, and we are getting enquiries from new markets all the time. At this year’s Sial, for example, we received strong interest from China, Hong Kong, and Mongolia.
“The bulk of our export business comes from retailers that supply British expat communities, who want authentic British sausages, and we are delighted to be able to meet their needs.”
Contract wins have included a deal to supply sausages and bacon to the British army in Afghanistan, Germany, Bahrain, and Gibraltar through NAAFI, the official trading organisation of the armed forces.
The British Premium Sausage Company, which recently picked up awards from Deliciously Yorkshire and the British Pork Executive, also supplies products to Portugal, Jordan and the Netherlands,.
Mark Robson, regional director of UKTI in Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “Food and drink exports from our region were worth an estimated £638m in 2011, and Ian’s story illustrates that there is clearly a global demand for high-quality Yorkshire produce.”
