World Scotch Pie champion’s recipe changes hands
THE secret recipe for Scotland’s five-times World Champion Scotch Pie Awards winner has been sold in a deal involving two of the country’s leading independent butchers.
James Pirie and Son’s world-beating pie is just one of the closely guarded award-winning recipes being sold by the Angus business to the UK’s Butcher Shop of the Year – McCaskie’s Butcher and Café of Wemyss Bay.
The multi-award-winning Inverclyde butcher takes over the brand, coveted recipes and intellectual property of Pirie’s, which closed its business and Newtyle shop earlier this month when owners Alan and Norma Pirie retired aer hugely successful careers in the industry.
McCaskie’s will increase production of the internationally-renowned Pirie Pie – along with other leading Pirie favourites –
at its state-of-the-art small batch production unit in Wemyss Bay.
“Given Pirie’s fabulous heritage, McCaskie’s intends to protect and promote the brand name and recipes, honouring the legendary status owner Alan, his father Jim, and wife Norma have established over the past 64 years,” explained McCaskie’s managing director, Nigel Ovens.
The record-smashing Pirie Pie lied the overall World
Championship Scotch Pie Awards title in 2024, 2023, 2021, 2020 and 2018. Pirie’s recipe book also contains the secret to its national title-winning sausages, pies, bacon and haggis.
McCaskie’s, the current Scottish Black Pudding Champion, has an equally impressive track record of winning national awards for its range of products (including Scotland’s most awarded Haggis), with its own family recipe book,
dating back generations, nd under lock and key.
Nigel said the business was ‘delighted’ to have brought both leading brands together, creating a catalogue of more awardwinning recipes than any other butcher.
“We have a longstanding friendship with the Pirie family and, as they head o to enjoy a well-deserved retirement, McCaskie’s will ensure their life’s work lives on,” he said.
“We’re delighted that
Alan will initially act as consultant to our team to ensure the Pirie-branded products taste exactly as they always have.
“It’s a real honour to be entrusted with iconic products such as the worldfamous Pirie Pie.”
Sealing the deal recently, Alan Pirie said: “We can’t think of a better company than McCaskie’s to continue the Pirie brand and recipes.
“Not only are they o¥cially the Best Butcher Shop in the UK, but they have a formidable catalogue of national award-winning products themselves.
“Our families share the same values and commitment to the highest standards of both product and service, and we’re reassured that the Pirie legacy will be in safe keeping at McCaskie’s.”
McCaskie’s immediate plans are to focus on building a relationship with Pirie’s existing wholesale clients and broadening the distribution of the products to speciality retail outlets and the hospitality sector.
A new James Pirie and Son website will be launched soon, oering a full range of Pirie products which enjoy national awardwinning status such as pork and beef sausages, haggis, speciality pies and bacon.
Pirie’s range of pies will also make a welcome addition to McCaskie’s growing range of products available in the shop.