A FRESH fruit and vegetables subsidiary of potatoes giant Albert Bartlett is planning to expand its product offering into salmon, haddock, biscuits, bacon and soups.

Scotty Brand already provides a range of Scottish grown produce to supermarkets including Morrisons, Tesco and Asda.

A recent deal will also see branded Ayrshire potatoes stocked in Waitrose's Scottish stores for the first time this summer.

The expansion means Airdrie-based Scotty Brand is on track to see the value of its retail sales more than double to about £12 million across 2013.

Paul McLaughlin, managing director, said: "This is about good food from Scotland, and showing there is a lot of care and consideration taken in growing it.

"In some instances we are working on increasing our fresh produce offer, but also moving out of that into things like salmon, haddock, biscuits and bacon and fresh soups.

"We'd love to get as much of it [into shops] as possible this year but it all depends on retailer timings, as some of them only have a range review once a year.

"We certainly have the products in the pipeline to be ready over the next few months."

Following a marketing campaign last year that involved the Pixar film Brave, a further £1m will be spent in the coming month on a television and cinema advert that will run across the summer.

Scotty Brand works as an agent for producers including Fife vegetable firm Kettle Produce, Perthshire soft fruit specialist Bruce Farms and Aberdeenshire carrot grower Philip Benzie.

The busy summer season is just gearing up, with the first deliveries of strawberries and raspberries coming into stores this month.

New pre-packed vegetable bags – one containing mint butter and one with seasoned butter – are also being stocked in Asda in Scotland for the first time.

Mr McLaughlin, who joined Scotty Brand in August 2011 having previously been chief executive of industry body Scotland Food & Drink, said the move into new product ranges with a longer shelf life may let the business explore export markets in the coming years.

He said: "The way we are looking at our future growth is creating new products, expanding distribution of our existing products and going into new markets.

"We tend to start our products in Scotland, and some of them may only really have resonance with a consumer here.

"However, our ambition is to have as many products as possible going [to England], as it is a much bigger market and that is where the growth opportunity sits.

"Exporting is something we will be looking at but it will be for the more shelf-stable products like bacon and biscuits."

Mr McLaughlin, who worked for Coca-Cola before returning to Scotland, said Scotty Brand has grown strongly from a retail sales value of £600,000 at the end of 2011 and he would like to see it eventually exceed the £50m Rooster potato brand owned by parent company Albert Bartlett.

The 43-year-old said: "We would be aiming to match and beat [Rooster] as we have a wider portfolio of products we are working with.

"The wider [the product range] then the more insulated you are from bad weather or harvests.

"Being fresh produce from Scotland is our point of difference but the challenge is that at the end of the season we come out of the supermarket and have to start selling back in.

"We have gone through the cycle twice now and have not lost a product yet, so the products are standing up for themselves and getting re-listed [in stores]."