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.