Famous butcher’s brand remains popular with consumers as it strives to tackle the energy crisis
A BUSINESS strategy to cope with the soaring cost of energy has ensured that Malcolm Allan – ‘Scotland’s Family Butcher’ – has maintained its place in the country’s top 10 brands in 2022.
The firm has been manufacturing quality Scottish meat products since 1954 and the familiar brand can be found on sale in every town in Scotland and many of the islands.
Malcolm Allan is renowned as a one-stop shop for retail meat product solutions – with a range of sausage products, haggis, black puddings and burgers in a variety of pack sizes.
Sitting alongside that are traditional butcher meat lines, including beef olives, mince, diced steak and steak pies.
Famously, the company produces more than 50% of all Scotland’s Lorne sausage, and the Larbert-based business makes some 50 tonnes of sausages a week on average.
Malcolm Allan’s popularity with customers sees its produce available in a wide variety of outlets, including major supermarkets, Co-op, Spar, McColls, Iceland and wholesaler Booker.
Navigating tough times
And, thankfully, the firm’s careful approach to the energy crisis has ensured families can still get their hands on their favourites from steak lorne and burgers through to the renowned Steak Pie. Director Gordon Allan explained: “It has been an incredibly tough year, mainly because of energy prices.
“We have been through tough times before – such as miners’ strikes, BSE, and foot-and-mouth and e-coli outbreaks – but nothing compares to this. We went from £6,000 per week to £22,000 per week for electricity alone.
“It would have been easy at times like this to drop quality for a quick fix but we have built our business on repeat purchases.
“For example, shoppers might not want to buy a steak pie every week but, the next time they do, we want customers to come back and buy ours again because they enjoyed the last one.”
Investing for the future
Malcolm Allan has invested in a gastro-type pie line and sales have grown considerably, although the director expressed concerns about the ability to hire enough staff to meet consumer demand for its products.
Nonetheless, all of the firm’s facilities have maintained the highest British Retail Consortium “AA” certification, and the company has continued to invest.
Repackaging of the pie lines has resulted in 100 tonnes of cardboard being removed annually, making Malcolm Allan more eco-friendly.
Allan continued: “The recent support from the UK Government is a major intervention on energy costs and a huge help to firms.
“But if the government want to control food inflation, the agricultural and food manufacturing sectors must take priority over others, such as hospitality.
“While we all enjoy going out for a meal, it is more important to have the price of basic food commodities at a cost hard-pressed families can afford to buy in stores.
