How Heck! sausage mogul rejected yachting career to captain family business

Following a rocky five years which saw sausage maker Heck plummet into the red, the 33-year-old entrepreneur at the helm of the family business said growth is finally on the horizon.

From a pre-tax profit of almost £722,000 in its 2018 financial year, in 2021 the brand, which is headquartered on a 500-acre farm deep in the Yorkshire countryside, entered the most difficult period in its 12 year history.

Covid-19 and the subsequent cost of living crisis hit the company hard, shaving more than £1m off its turnover in the space of 12 months and gouging a pre-tax loss of £518,166 into its more than ten-year run in the black.

“That period really taught me how quickly things can change,” Jamie Keeble said. “We had to make some difficult decisions, including letting staff go.

“That was terrible, but ultimately the lessons we learned from it have made the business stronger.”

Since then things have been improving. Heck, which specialises in gluten-free and chicken-based sausages, is forecast to grow its turnover by 10 per cent by the end of its 2024 financial year, with a raft of new products – including “sausage rashers” – showing early signs of commercial success.

Keeble added: “We want to get our turnover up to £50m in the next five years. At the moment we’re just shy of £30m.

“I think, if it wasn’t for the pandemic and the awful situation in Ukraine, we could have got there a lot quicker.

“But now the dust settled we’re in a fantastic position to make those goals a reality.”

How did Heck! start?

Although the journey was undoubtedly stressful, Keeble was perhaps the ideal person to steer the business through the recent economic storm.

Before returning to Yorkshire to help his parents launch Heck, the now-sales director was just starting a career as a professional yachtmaster in the south of France.

He said: “Working on a yacht was never the plan. Growing up my parents ran a business called Debbie and Andrews sausages, which was actually one of the first premium sausage brands to be in supermarkets.

“I spent most of my childhood thinking I’d work for the business, but then they sold the company in 2005 and that opportunity vanished for me overnight.

“Growing up in Yorkshire and being nowhere near the sea, being on a yacht seemed very exciting, so I disappeared for six months to get qualified.”

But a couple of weeks before he was due to start his first job, he got a call from his parents.

“They said they were ready to start again with a new company but they needed my help to get it up and running.

“I didn’t hesitate to go back, and six months later, Heck was launched.”