A £3.5m investment will help a North Yorkshire family firm create up to one million sausages a day.

HECK! Food is doubling its manufacturing capacity and creating a new vertical farm as part of its goal to turn over £100 million by 2025.

The sausage and burger maker is also expanding its team and creating 20 jobs in the factory and show team.

The family-owned company is continuing its growth in vegan, pork and chicken sausage and burger sector at its site near Bedale.

The 40,000sq foot expansion will allow the food company to take its healthy products into other sectors, such as cooked snacks.

HECK! has 61 per cent of the premium branded sausage market volume and 58 per cent value.

The company, founded by The Keeble family in 2015, has also installed a vertical farm on site, which will grow herbs and vegetables for its products. The farm is built by industry leading experts, Vertical Future.

Co-founder Jamie Keeble said: “We’re one of the last independent businesses in the UK sausage industry, and our great taste and hands on approach has made us the number one premium brand.

“Our vegan and frozen range were big growth areas in 2020 and we are now launching a completely new range of cooked snacks into Boots, WH Smith and Tesco. This is a massive market opportunity, particularly with travel and leisure opening up.”

Bangin’ Bites are HECK!’s first foray into the “grab and go” market, worth billions of pounds – mini cooked cocktail versions of its popular 97 per cent and Chicken Italia sauages, in portable pots. Stocked by Tesco, WH Smith and Boots, the launch is HECK’s first venture into convenience retail.

Jamie added: “The UK is the biggest snacking market in Europe, with 66 per cent of adults snacking at least once a day and an incredible 37 per cent of young people saying they snack instead of having a proper meal. Our consumer is also looking to make healthier choices and there has been a 32 per cent increase in people searching online for high protein snacks.”

“We’re also really excited by the installation of the vertical farm on site – it’s literally a world first! We are farmers turned producers, my brother and grandad still farm the 800 acres around the HECK! HQ and they are fascinated as the unit are the future of farming.

“We will be the first food brand in the world to grow herb and vegetables onsite to put into our popular meat and vegan italia range. There are huge benefits to vertical farming.

“No pesticides or herbicides, less water and food waste, no transport, more efficient production, taste control and better shelf life. Micro-nutrients will also provide fantastic health benefits as well as giving us a unique selling point. We are farmers originally and it’s really exciting to now be investing in the future of sustainable, cutting-edge agriculture and not relying on imports.”

The new space will also house a creche and gym.

As Jamie continues “As a company we’re very aware of the mental and physical health of our team and during lockdown it was even more apparent that people needed different types of support. We encourage everyone to walk every day and we even have a dog hotel.”