Combining big business with being nice guys
Established: 2001 Turnover: £5m No of lines: 7
Nice guys traditionally finish last. But that doesn’t faze Andrew Keeble, who with wife Debbie founded sausage maker Debbie & Andrew’s in 2001. With sales of £5m predicted to double by March 2010, the couple have plenty to smile about.
The choice of publicity shot was no coincidence. Wellingtons are a key part of Debbie & Andrew’s brand identity since the company overhauled its packaging designs last January. Since then, the company has used wellies extensively in its PR efforts, including holding “welly wanging” events for charity Farm Crisis Network.
Debbie & Andrew’s began as a spin-off from the couple’s farm, which was “losing an absolute fortune”. The company is tightly focused, selling just seven lines. Debbie & Andrew’s is the only UK company to make its sausages using only pork shoulder, which makes them leaner than most. “Most sausages use five or six cuts of pork, and some say you have to include pork belly for more fat,” says Keeble. “We like our sausages lean. They’re not exactly healthy , but they’re about as healthy as sausages can be.”
Unlike some of their peers who have shied away from the supermarkets, working through the major retailers is central to the company’s plans. The couple’s sausages almost immediately got their first multiple listing. Deliberately so. “When we started in 2001, we were a typical farmers’ diversification,” says Keeble. “We were supplying small retailers, and it was a fast track to nowhere. A lot of small retailers are very insular. If you supply one of their rivals, they stop stocking you. You don’t get that with the supermarkets.”
In 2002 Tesco became the first supermarket to stock Debbie & Andrew’s. Initially stocked in just one store, the sausages proved popular and found their way on to more shelves. Four weeks ago, Debbie & Andrew’s secured shelf space in 400 Tesco stores nationwide, up from 120. Morrisons, though, remains the company’s main stockist. Keeble credits the company’s recent success to micro-management of stock and waste, and a new focus on the target customer. “Until this year we hadn’t researched our customer. I’d always assumed it was yummy mummies in Discoveries – the classic countryside market,” says Keeble. “But we did panel research and found we had a much broader range of consumers, including companies, which helped us pick the right stores to target.”
Knowing his suppliers is important to Keeble, too. “We want to know where our meat is coming from,” says Keeble. “It’s not enough to say it’s British, everyone is doing that. We’ve managed to take it a bit further.” Most producers receive meat from at least 200 farms, but thanks to its relationship with a family-run abattoir in Norfolk, Debbie & Andrew’s sources its meat from just 40 farmers, all of whom Andrew knows personally. The company’s Fair Trade for Farmers deal aids this close relationship. Farmers are paid in accordance with the Deadweight Average Pig Price system, which lags behind the current hikes. Under the system, he says, the price is slower to increase and slower to come back down again, ensuring a more stable structure long term.
There’s no doubt the friendly ethos is underlined by a determination to run a successful business. Debbie and Andrew’s has 4% market share of branded sausages, and is the fastest-growing company, up 54% year-on-year [TNS 52 w/e 13 July 2008]. “A few other brands in our category seem to be running on empty at the moment,” says Keeble. “We’re hoping to steal a march on them. I think we can take a few scalps.” Well, no-one’s nice all the time.
Established: 2001 Turnover: £5m No of lines: 7
Nice guys traditionally finish last. But that doesn’t faze Andrew Keeble, who with wife Debbie founded sausage maker Debbie & Andrew’s in 2001. With sales of £5m predicted to double by March 2010, the couple have plenty to smile about.
Snapshot
Background
Husband-and-wife team Andrew and Debbie Keeble founded Debbie & Andrew’s in 2001 as a spin-off to their farming business. The firm now employs 48 staff, all but three of whom work in production and distribution.
Products
The company sells Perfect Pork, Great Yorkshire, Sicilian, Harrogate, Pork and Mustard and Pork and Ale Sausages, plus the Ellie and Roddie’s kids sausage line.
Stockists
Debbie & Andrew’s sausages are stocked nationally in Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons. The products are now stocked in 400 Tesco stores, up from 120 last month.
Expansion
Turnover is projected to double to £10m by March 2010, and the company aims for 15% market share. In the last year, the company grew its share 118% in the branded category and 54% in superior brands.
And of course... Cinders
Cinders, the sweet little mud-phobic piglet, brought the world’s media to Debbie and Andrew’s door. He was covered in the UK’s tabloids and broadsheets, and seen by TV viewers as far afield as Australia and the US.
Being the nice guy is a huge part of the Sheffield-based company’s approach, not just in its branding, but also in its dealings with suppliers.
It was a typically nice news story that attracted the international media to Debbie and Andrew earlier this year. The couple had taken some publicity shots of one of their piglets in wellingtons, as he was afraid of mud. Cinders the piglet became a global star and was seen by more than 100 million people worldwide.
“We took the pictures as a joke, really,” says Keeble. “Then our bloody pig was all over the tabloids. I was interviewed for chat shows here, in America and Australia. It’s a nice, happy, good-news story and people like to see those at times like these.”
Background
Husband-and-wife team Andrew and Debbie Keeble founded Debbie & Andrew’s in 2001 as a spin-off to their farming business. The firm now employs 48 staff, all but three of whom work in production and distribution.
Products
The company sells Perfect Pork, Great Yorkshire, Sicilian, Harrogate, Pork and Mustard and Pork and Ale Sausages, plus the Ellie and Roddie’s kids sausage line.
Stockists
Debbie & Andrew’s sausages are stocked nationally in Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons. The products are now stocked in 400 Tesco stores, up from 120 last month.
Expansion
Turnover is projected to double to £10m by March 2010, and the company aims for 15% market share. In the last year, the company grew its share 118% in the branded category and 54% in superior brands.
And of course... Cinders
Cinders, the sweet little mud-phobic piglet, brought the world’s media to Debbie and Andrew’s door. He was covered in the UK’s tabloids and broadsheets, and seen by TV viewers as far afield as Australia and the US.
The choice of publicity shot was no coincidence. Wellingtons are a key part of Debbie & Andrew’s brand identity since the company overhauled its packaging designs last January. Since then, the company has used wellies extensively in its PR efforts, including holding “welly wanging” events for charity Farm Crisis Network.
Debbie & Andrew’s began as a spin-off from the couple’s farm, which was “losing an absolute fortune”. The company is tightly focused, selling just seven lines. Debbie & Andrew’s is the only UK company to make its sausages using only pork shoulder, which makes them leaner than most. “Most sausages use five or six cuts of pork, and some say you have to include pork belly for more fat,” says Keeble. “We like our sausages lean. They’re not exactly healthy , but they’re about as healthy as sausages can be.”
Unlike some of their peers who have shied away from the supermarkets, working through the major retailers is central to the company’s plans. The couple’s sausages almost immediately got their first multiple listing. Deliberately so. “When we started in 2001, we were a typical farmers’ diversification,” says Keeble. “We were supplying small retailers, and it was a fast track to nowhere. A lot of small retailers are very insular. If you supply one of their rivals, they stop stocking you. You don’t get that with the supermarkets.”
In 2002 Tesco became the first supermarket to stock Debbie & Andrew’s. Initially stocked in just one store, the sausages proved popular and found their way on to more shelves. Four weeks ago, Debbie & Andrew’s secured shelf space in 400 Tesco stores nationwide, up from 120. Morrisons, though, remains the company’s main stockist. Keeble credits the company’s recent success to micro-management of stock and waste, and a new focus on the target customer. “Until this year we hadn’t researched our customer. I’d always assumed it was yummy mummies in Discoveries – the classic countryside market,” says Keeble. “But we did panel research and found we had a much broader range of consumers, including companies, which helped us pick the right stores to target.”
Knowing his suppliers is important to Keeble, too. “We want to know where our meat is coming from,” says Keeble. “It’s not enough to say it’s British, everyone is doing that. We’ve managed to take it a bit further.” Most producers receive meat from at least 200 farms, but thanks to its relationship with a family-run abattoir in Norfolk, Debbie & Andrew’s sources its meat from just 40 farmers, all of whom Andrew knows personally. The company’s Fair Trade for Farmers deal aids this close relationship. Farmers are paid in accordance with the Deadweight Average Pig Price system, which lags behind the current hikes. Under the system, he says, the price is slower to increase and slower to come back down again, ensuring a more stable structure long term.
There’s no doubt the friendly ethos is underlined by a determination to run a successful business. Debbie and Andrew’s has 4% market share of branded sausages, and is the fastest-growing company, up 54% year-on-year [TNS 52 w/e 13 July 2008]. “A few other brands in our category seem to be running on empty at the moment,” says Keeble. “We’re hoping to steal a march on them. I think we can take a few scalps.” Well, no-one’s nice all the time.
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