?Venison used to be a poor quality commodity meat, but years of hard work improving processing and branding have paid off, says Christian Nissen, MD of Highland Game

The growing popularity of venison and other game meats has not come about by chance but as a result of the modernisation of the image and quality of game, according to Highland Game MD Christian Nissen.

Nissen has been at the helm of the Dundee-based company - Britain's largest branded venison supplier - for ten years. He bought the business in 1997 when it was a "traditional, boring company with no corporate identity, branding or promotion and with limited demand for a commodity item".

Nissen switched the focus from unbranded exports to branded wholesale, catering and ultimately retail products, introduced a quality assurance scheme for suppliers and developed recipes to encourage demand.

It took several years to create interest, and the arrival of foot and mouth restrictions marked a low point, but demand for healthier, traceable products sprang from this sink-or-swim moment.

Last year turnover grew 40%, fuelled largely by the launch of the first products in supermarkets following an investment of £250,000 in plant and machinery, packaging and quality assurance. Its range of fresh Scottish wild venison meat cuts are now in Morrisons and Costco throughout the UK, and in Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury's in Scotland.

Highland Game processes wild venison from 200 approved meat suppliers in Scotland during the six-month shooting season from September to March. It supplies about 25,000 animals per year, with the capacity for more. These go to retail as fresh meat and to manufacturing and catering as fresh or blast-frozen.

Nissen is considering a move into farmed venison to plug the seasonal hole, as well as branching out from meat cuts to healthy, added-value products.

Further improvements in venison products were needed to make the most of the benefits of rising consumer demand. "This interest in venison didn't come out of the blue," he said. "There has been a constant drive among ourselves and others to promote game and make it accessible and easy to cook and high in quality.

"Venison is very difficult to butcher right and has been presented very badly in the past, while beef and other meat production have gained in reputation. Customers were turned off because of poor quality but we have shown it can be produced to a very high level in a new specification of packaging with cooking information."

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