AN ambitious meat supplier has struck another supermarket deal which it hopes will be worth around £1 million a year.
We Hae Meat said it will now supply four new beef products - beef steak slice sausage in two sizes, beef steak slice with black pudding and black pudding itself - to 50 Asda stores across Scotland.
That builds on the relationship the companies have had since 2007. Initially that came about after a store manager asked why beef from cows grazing next to the supermarket's outlet in Girvan, Ayrshire, were not stocked on its shelves
Since that initial tie-up We Hae Meat has also struck deals with the likes of Tesco, Aldi, Co-operative and Waitrose as well as hotels and restaurants such as Cameron House on Loch Lomond, Turnberry and Andy Murray's Cromlix.
The family-owned business, now headed by husband and wife team Alex and Carlyn Paton, employs around 50 people and sources meat from its own Cairnhill farm and other neighbouring farmers.
It indicated an additional eight to 10 staff would be needed to meet the extra manufacturing work which will be generated through the latest Asda contract.
The deal is expected to increase We Hae Meat's turnover by around 20 per cent.
Mrs Paton said: "Our relationship with Asda continues to grow from strength to strength, from only being able to see our cows through the window of the Girvan store to having the product stocked on shelf nationally across Scotland is fantastic.
"Now more than ever, customers are questioning where the products they are buying come from, and are opting to choose locally produced, traditional products. Our new range of beef steak slice sausage and black pudding offer customers a top quality product with true provenance and traceability."
Asda stocks around 900 Scottish lines from 89 suppliers.
Brian O'Shea, regional buying manager for Scotland, said: "As part of our strategy, we place huge importance on supporting local suppliers in growing their business, no matter how big or small.
"We Hae Meat is the perfect example of how Asda are able to support and nurture the businesses of local Scottish producers, their range of products are already very popular with our customers and these new lines will allow them to continue to enjoy premium quality from a local Scottish butcher."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article