Sausage News
The Northumberland Sausage Company has opened its first ever retail outlet located in Newcastle. It has targeted plans for another nine in the next five years.
The brand, called Sausology, opened in Newcastle’s Grainger Market last Monday to an “amazing” response according to the founder of the company Claire Watson-Laney.
The retail outlet sells some of its own range of sausages, of which it has 150 different flavours.
As well as traditional flavours, it offers some more innovative mixes including Pork and Chainbridge Honey, Pork and Lime Pickle and The Northumberland Swirl (450g).
The retail shop also offers customers the opportunity to make their own sausage, allowing people to choose a range of meats as well as ingredients. Customers can have a meeting with the Sausologist and have their ideal sausage made by the staff in-store or can even stay for an hour session and make their own.
The company has been running for five years, originally setting up a small butcher’s shop in Wark, Northumberland. The butcher’s started selling the range of sausages, which became so popular that a factory was set up in West Woodburn, near Hexham.
The company, which has a turnover of over £1m, is now producing in excess of 78,000 sausages per week. It also sells its products to more than 200 retail and catering customers.
“In the next five years we want to be at 10 sites. These will open in different counties and we are looking at Scotland, Leeds, York, Manchester and London.
“In the next site we also want to offer a complete experience day in sausage-making.”
The company currently offers sausage experience days at Brocksbushes Farm Shop, Corbridge which are proving popular.
With the arrival of autumn, ingredients supplier Unbar Rothon has unveiled six imaginative sausage flavours, created to establish something unique for the market. Cinnamon-flavoured pork and toffee apple, and a warm and spicy pork and mango chutney are among the new flavours.
“We recognise that it is all too easy for an industry to become attached to the familiar and get stuck in the mud,” explained Richard Rothon, director of Unbar Rothon.
Also found among the sausage mixes are a sweet and spicy pork, leek, apple and chilli mix and a spicy apple and black pudding mix. Completing the range are two vegetarian-options, which consists of the flavourings; smoky garlic and thyme, and parsnip honey and thyme.
Rothon added: “We have worked very hard to produce new and interesting ideas, which will make a food offer more interesting – and profitable.”
As well as the new range of sausage flavourings, the business has unrolled a series of ingredients designed for the meatballs and stuffing market.
Leading the launch is a sweet orange and tart cranberry mix. Other flavours are; leek and black pepper, red pepper and shallot, and sage and onion with a hint of black pepper.
Unbar Rothon is not the only company that has noticed a trend for something different in the sausage market.
Snowbird Foods claims to be the leading cooked sausage and meatball supplier. Its products are fully cooked and frozen at factory stage, which allows them to be quickly reheated for the food-to-go and buffet sectors.
The standard Cumberland, Lincolnshire and pork sausages are claimed to be a prepared-to-order breakfast solution that can be microwaved from frozen.
The company has also developed a new Mini Meat Bites range, consisting of cocktail and other small sausages with pork, lamb, beef, chicken and turkey varieties.
“These award-winning bites have attracted a lot of interest and their versatility has enabled us to develop a new market segment in the ingredients area,” said Snowbird’s commercial and marketing director Roy Anderson.
As well as the mini sausages for the buffet market, Snowbird Foods has developed a pork and spiced chorizo sausage that it claims will heat in seconds in the microwave.
The sausage contains an 80% pork content and is presented in a beef collagen casing. They are made using diced chorizo and flavoured with smoked paprika, salt, black pepper, ginger, parsley and garlic.
Anderson explained: “Our chorizo is an ideal solution for those restaurants looking for a sausage that is so different their outlet will stand out from the crowd and attract repeat business.”