MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT
DEBBIE KEEBLE, 54, co-founded Heck with her husband, Andrew, in 2013. They live in Yorkshire and have four children, Jamie, 30, Guy, 29, Roddie, 27 and ellie, 25. ANDREW and I come from farming families. We grew up 15 miles apart in North Yorkshire, and met at a pub at 17. I didn’t think I’d marry him, but I never looked at anyone else after that. Four years later we married.
I’d always wanted to stay in farming; nothing beats running in the fields to wake you up. I couldn’t bear to sit at a desk all day, so I went to agricultural college and we became pig farmers. But the market wasn’t doing well. By our 30s, we were on a joint income of only £250 a week, with four kids to support. We had to make a change.
So, in 1999, we started making our own sausages. At first, we used prebought seasoning powder, but it tasted awful. Using real leek and apple worked much better.
We farmed in the day, then made the sausages at night, and I’d deliver them after dropping the kids at school. We got our first range of Debbie & Andrew’s sausages stocked in Tesco and Asda. The business grew so fast that we joined a larger firm.
It was a disaster. We were passed around three big corporations, who ran out of money, so we lost the brand in 2012. It was traumatic, and we had to start from scratch in our late 40s. But our kids were relying on us. So we said: ‘What the heck? Let’s try again, but do it differently.’
We created bright packaging and exciting flavours, and used £700,000 compensation from our first business, which felt like a big risk.
In April 2013, we launched our Heck sausages in Tesco: pork, Italian chicken and a flat version to fit on a slice of bread. Our goal was to appeal to those who didn’t usually buy sausages. It worked.
In 2017 we launched a vegan option in Waitrose, after a friend complained about how bland most vegan sausages are. The ingredients in our meat-free options include quinoa, chilli, ginger, lemon and kale.
Today, we have a £33 million turnover and six ranges, from bangers to burgers and mince, all stocked in major supermarkets.
Lockdown was terrifying. There was a huge demand due to stockpiling, then it went dead. But we’ve recovered reasonably well.
As a family business, we have control. Our children have key roles, too, and we all meet for lunch every day — it usually involves sausages! How many mums can say that?
■ Heck is supporting end Youth Homelessness with a limited-edition pack on sale from December 24 to January 5.