Malcolm Allan – June 2010

Giving his name in public generates much admiration and a trip to see the Malcolm Allan product displays at ASDA Bishopbriggs, crowds of staff poured out to meet the man whose name adorns the colourful Steak Pie and Lorne Sausage packs.

The reputation of the brand is well earned especially since the long established butchers business concentrated its efforts on just eight key customers. Malcolm Allan's Beef Olives, Haggis, Black Pudding, Linked Sausages, Lorne and Steak Pies are the basis of the business that now supply all but one of the major multiples. This means that the Falkirk business's products are available throughout the length and breadth of Scotland.

Malcolm Allan served his time as a butcher with his uncle in MacRae's in Falkirk, returning there after service in World War Two, before in 1954 at the age of 35 taking over the Bonnybridge butchers business of Mrs McKenzie. Quickly another shop was acquired in nearby Camelon and by 1995 the business peaked at 20 retail butchers shops.

Today they focus entirely on their wholesale business, having sold their final shop in Grangemouth in 2008. Malcolm's younger son Gordon has some regrets about that but having tried everything including catering and even a flagship shop in the Gyle Shopping Centre, he is now pleased with the business's change of direction.

It was the catering side supplying the canteen of the ADSA distribution centre in Grangemouth that opened the door to the wholesale market. Gordon explained:-

“We supplied the distribution depot with sausages and the manager of one of their stores phoned me up to say 'I'm fed up going down to the distribution depot – we get better sausages down there than we get in our stores, have you ever thought of doing this?'”

That was in 1995 and the door swung open for Gordon Allan who freely admits that he could not do a barcode and had no idea what supplying a superstore was about.

“I went to see the manager at the Motherwell store and the first week we sold so much sliced sausage it was unbelievable. Malcolm Allan was not known in Motherwell but that took us into Cumbernauld and Coatbridge.”

The next step came when a surprise letter arrived from the ASDA boss Archie Norman:-

“He had been in the Cumbernauld store and had asked customers why they were buying the Malcolm Allan product in preference to other similar products stocked in other ASDA stores.”

Archie Norman's letter asked Gordon to tell him where they stood with ASDA and what their aspirations might be.

“I didn't reply but the manager in Motherwell pushed me into sending something back through the internal mail. Because it was before Christmas I said we could supply seven stores but we could take that up to 14 by building an extension in February. He phoned me up and told me to get the extension going and we kicked on from there.”

As more stores came on line more opportunities came for extending the product line in stores.
The Govan store was instrumental in introducing beef olives that are now made with four different fillings – traditional sausagemeat, black pudding, haggis and an oatmeal filling for the Aberdeenshire consumers.

It was ASDA Kirkcaldy that first asked for steak pies and it wasn't long before Malcolm Allan's pie was making an impact in the streets of Raith.

Gordon claims that the success of his product is due to replicating how any butcher would make the products in his own shop. They still make sausage batches at a maximum size of 100lb., all the beef for the beef olives is sliced on two hand powered slicers and every steak pie is weighed, filled and lidded individually.

“We set up a 700g steak pie but with the best will in the world that wouldn't serve four. You couldn't buy that in a supermarket in Scotland. Then they wanted Scotch Beef in it and they wanted puff pastry on it. ASDA were concerned that they couldn't get the price I needed for a kilo pie but I said 'lets find out'. But we then had the only pie that could sell at a premium price.”

When pushed to drop his price and make a Steak and Sausage pie, Gordon introduced the Sausage Pie maintaining that the product has got to be good and quality maintained.

“You are better walking away and to stop making it when it is still a good product because somebody else will buy it. It is my Dad's name that is on it so you have got to make a good product.”

There were plenty more wanting the Malcolm Allan products on their shelves. Somerfields, Sainsburys, Tesco, Co-op, CJ Lang (Spar), Waitrose and David Sands followed. Now the business employs 120 people in the four purpose designed units over 25,000 square feet that include a licensed cutting plant in Bonnybridge and a stand alone bakery, an EFSIS approved meat product manufacturing unit and packing depot at Tamfourhill in Falkirk.

Gordon (left) looks after the sales and his older brother James does the sourcing. James' son Ross and daughter Laura are now in the business and Gordon's son Stewart has also come on board. There is a technical manager and the running of the business is down to 12 key employees all of whom have come along on the rollercoaster ride that has rocketed Malcolm Allan to national recognition.

“You have got to be able to meet the demands. At Christmas and New Year with snow everywhere we supplied all our customers fully. A lot of that is down to the staff but that is the biggest thing – quality and availability.

“If you haven't been making a good product, not achieving 100% availability, not been pounding round the stores doing sampling you are not going to sell the product.”

Capacity is something Malcolm Allan has created so that no business needs to be turned away. In the four days up to New Year they turned out 64,000 steak pies. Every week 200,000 slices of Sliced Sausage are made and packed. Mind blowing numbers by most standards!

Their mission statement is like any butcher's – never sell anything that you wouldn't want to eat yourself. That has certainly taken Malcolm Allan's far. With such an impressive customer list Gordon and James are really doing the business and have certainly earned the approval of their father, but even he would admit it's down to much more than a name.

Attachments:

• MALCOLM ALLAN 260410 B.pdf