The artisan delicacies are produced by The Clucking Pig, a company launched by David Laing, a former police officer and Disney Cruise Line security manager and his wife Christine, who also run a holiday letting business Grewgrass Lodge near New Marske.
Theo’s backing has led to a double celebration for the company as David and his small dedicated team are about to hit a mammoth sales achievement – they’re on target to sell 40,000 scotch eggs this year alone!
David and Christine’s culinary creations were spotted by TV Dragon, entrepreneur and business mentor Theo who shared details of their business with his 500,000 Twitter followers and awarded The Clucking Pig an #SBS (Small Business Sunday) Award.
They are now part of Theo’s exclusive business network where like-minded individuals can share their experiences and their successes.
Theo said: “I know I have been lucky in business and I am keen now to spread goodwill to others.”
David said: “We were thrilled to land on Theo’s radar and having our company’s tweets shared with his hundreds of thousands of followers has sparked inquiries from across the country from retailers and restaurants keen to stock our scotch eggs.”
David and Christine launched the business in 2013 and they sell their range of unique scotch eggs on farmers’ markets and food festivals across the North East and North Yorkshire, including Stokesley, Wynyard Hall, Stewart Park and Saltburn.
Customers now flock from far and wide to snap up the amazing range of flavours, including Wild Boar and Chorizo, Free Range Pork with Black Pudding and Venison in Red Wine.
David and Christine’s ethos is to use only the best produce they can find including their own free range chicken, duck and goose eggs and the best free range meat which is reared on North East farms, some of which are owned by fellow market traders thus helping their business.
Each gourmet scotch egg is handmade, from the choosing of the eggs to the time spent boiling them, preparation of the meat and even the making of the breadcrumbs.
It’s proving to be a winning combination and is a long way from the company’s first day trading when they set up a stall with 70 scotch eggs.
At one event this year visitors snapped up 2,000 of the breadcrumb-encased beauties.
And David’s advice to anyone thinking of joining the burgeoning artisan food sector is simple: “Be honest and truthful with your products, know the provenance of everything you sell to the public and they will reward you.