Mackie’s makes Scottish breakfast-inspired crisp offering a permanent fixture

A crisp maker’s Scottish breakfast-inspired offering has become a permanent fixture after strong demand for the initially limited-run product.

Mackie’s Crisps has confirmed it will keep making its Lorne sausage and brown sauce flavour crisps after achieving “record-breaking” sales of 220,000 packs – making it the brand’s most successful limited-edition launch.

The firm has secured new listings for the crisps, with the 150g bags back in stock across Tesco and Marks & Spencer, with Co-op and Scotmid launching this month and an Asda listing confirmed for later in the year.

James Taylor, managing director with the Perthshire-based Taypack business, which in 2009 launched a joint venture with Aberdeenshire’s Mackie’s of Scotland to create a crisp brand, said: “Our limited-edition flavours are ways to experiment and try out new recipes, while keeping consumers on their toes.

Mackie’s Crisps has confirmed it will keep making its Lorne sausage and brown sauce flavour crisps.

“We’re proud to champion Scottish culture and produce, and our more patriotic flavours like Lorne sausage and brown sauce and haggis, neeps and tatties have proven extremely popular both at home and further afield.

“It exceeded all of our expectations – we had a feeling it would be popular but becoming our best-selling flavour in just a few months was definitely unexpected. When retailers were interested, we knew we had to make it part of our permanent range.”

Taylor runs the crisp business with his father, George Taylor, who is its chairman. It employs a team of 50 staff and recently became Scotland’s third best-selling premium crisp brand following growth that bucked a wider market decline.

The popular breakfast sausage has stirred debates for more than two centuries over what the correct name should be – Lorne, slice or square sausage. The recreation of the breakfast roll classic into a crisp flavour divided fans over the same question.

It followed Mackie’s previous Scottish world-first crisp flavour, haggis, neeps and tatties, which also sold out ahead of all expectations.

Each bag is made up of a variety of crisping potatoes, giving consumers locally sourced, thick-cut and gently cooked potato crisps.

Mackie’s Crisps has become one of the country’s most familiar snack food brands. Aberdeenshire Mackie’s of Scotland is best known for its ice cream.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription: www.scotsman.com/subscriptions