Breaking Into Tesco winner Nick Smallwood has sold up to £100,000 of his Soup in a Bun line within a week of the amateur's product hitting shelves.

The £2.99 product - a bun that is heated up, scooped out and filled with soup - is on at least its second production run since it arrived in 155 Tesco stores on 8 April. Each run is producing a minimum quantity of 15,000 units, said Smallwood.

Speaking to The Grocer this week, Smallwood said he had ambitious plans for the concept, including alternative fillings, such as curry, chilli and casserole, and a new product developed outside Tesco, Bun on the Run.

"It's an entirely different concept. It's a fast-food product that I'm currently working on and hope to bring to market, separate to what I'm doing with Tesco."

A recipe for a kids' range was also "close to being nailed", he said, with Soup in a Bun lending itself to the 5-a-day health message.

Only the winning product from the TV show, Nick's Thai spice butternut squash soup... served in a bun, is exclusive to Tesco, which keeps the intellectual property rights for as long as the product is stocked.

"There's plenty of room for manoeuvre with other businesses. The concept has mass-market appeal, whether in Tesco or Sainsbury's," said Smallwood.

Merchandised in the chilled aisle between soups and ready meals, Soup in a Bun has six weeks to prove itself, at which time it will either be rolled out or pulled.

"I have to be realistic," he added. "I know this is a single product on the bottom shelf that has to fight for every sale. The odds are probably stacked against us but the exposure has been fantastic."

To put sales into context, the £1m chilled soup brand Yorkshire Provender currently sells about 50 units per week per store. If 30,000 units of Soup in a Bun were sold in one week, that would equate to 190 per store or a £4m brand.

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