By Kristy Dorsey
Scottish butcher Simon Howie says it is on course for another record-breaking January with sales of haggis set to jump by 20 per cent in the run-up to Burns Night.
The family-owned Perthshire company is set to deliver 1.2 million haggis this Burns season, an increase of 200,000 on the previous record set in January 2019.
The firm said it accounts for 53% of total haggis sales during Burns, more than double its nearest competitor.
To achieve this, employees at Simon Howie’s factory in Dunning have been working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This 24/7 production began at the start of December, as the Christmas season is another major driver of demand for haggis.
A total of 137 staff and contractors are currently working round the clock. During times of normal demand, Simon Howie employs roughly 110 people working 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday.
The company’s founder and majority shareholder said the increase in haggis sales has been partly driven by investment in meat-free alternatives. Sales of Simon Howie’s Vegetarian Haggis, which is Vegan certified by the Vegetarian Society, were up by 31% across the UK in 2019. Vegetarian options accounted for about 20% of total sales in the financial year to the end of December. Though the final figures are still being tallied, Mr Howie anticipates an increase in revenues during 2019 to just over £16m.
“We are farmers, and farmers grow vegetables,” he said. “If people want to eat vegetables, we will do that, or if they want us to feed vegetables to animals, and that then becomes meat, we will do that too. It is one and the same thing to us. We don’t have a problem adapting our products to what our customers want.”
For the first time, Tesco will feature Simon Howie haggis on the premium end-of-aisle position in 776 stores across England and Wales this Burns season. Sixty per cent of Simon Howie haggis was sold south of the Border last year, a 6% increase on the previous 12 months.
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