Marks and Spencer’s food is the envy of high-end food producers all over Europe.
It takes a lot to exceed their expectations.
In 2008, M&S partnered with Finnebrogue with an ambitious aim: to make the best pork sausages in any UK supermarket. We knew how to make great artisan sausages, but the real challenge was to bring artisanal values and processes to a supermarket scale.
We gathered insight on the public perception of the perfect sausage by listening to over 800 food lovers, then we set the bar even higher. We wanted to create an outdoor bred, gluten-free, 97% pork sausage that would rival butchers’ sausages by using better meat than butchers use.
The equation was simple.
Great meat from well-treated animals + expert skill and craftsmanship + innovative processes = really great food.
The idea was that by using small batches, individually inspected by our highly skilled butchers, we would bring craft methods to a much wider audience. We worked with M&S to develop a unique texture and succulence that simply can’t be found in any other sausage range.
It worked so well that Finnebrogue now produces 26 lines for M&S, including all of their top tier sausages. We were awarded M&S’s UK Fresh Food Supplier of the Year in 2010.
To top it all off, we won the only 2011 Which? Best Buy awarded to any supermarket sausage in the “Premium Sausage” category, along with 2 national sausage week awards.
M&S is a great match for Finnebrogue — they care about a lot of the same things that we do, and are always striving to improve animal welfare, the quality of their food and the eating experience.
Visit Marks and Spencers’ Plan A site for more information about their commitment to sustainability.