Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeenshire BBQ sauce makers fire up expansion at its Aboyne factory

Angus & Oink owners Scott and Malissa Fraser have invested £300,000 in the business. Picture by Kami Thomson / DC Thomson
Angus & Oink owners Scott and Malissa Fraser have invested £300,000 in the business. Picture by Kami Thomson / DC Thomson

BBQ sauce and rub company Angus & Oink has splashed out £300,000 on its Aboyne factory in a move which will see its production double.

The cash injection will also see staff numbers increase from seven to 10 in the near future.

Owners Scott and Malissa Fraser have installed a new £180,000 production line at their factory based in Deeside Activity Park.

The machinery will fill pots, do all labelling and seal all products meaning it will no longer have to be done manually by staff.

On top of that a further £30,000 has been spent on creating a new BBQ school.

Grow the business

Mr Fraser said: “This will allow us to double production from the site and continue to grow into new markets or grow existing markets.

A&O production manager Rebekah Clydesdale and Rab McCallum. Picture by Kami Thomson / DC Thomson

“We’ve retained our staff and retrained on the new machine from what was a very manual job.

“We also plan to employ more people to add digital and conventional sales.”

Angus & Oink, which started in 2014, produces a range of sauces and rubs and currently exports to distributors in Holland, Italy, Lithuania, Ireland and Australia.

The Frasers were inspired by a period of extensive travels, with their sauces and spice rubs inspired by a range of spicy, flavourful cuisines they experienced on the way.

It moved to Deeside Activity Park in March last year and has since expanded on site doubling its space for production, storage and dispatch.

Across the globe sales

Mr Fraser believes sales have been driven by more people choosing to cook at home.

He said: “We really grew during the pandemic but seem to have retained a lot of customers.

Angus & Oink products. Picture by Kami Thomson / DC Thomson

“I think the quality and range of what we do sees people buy into it and the brand.

“We are trying to get in to the indoor cooking market as well because our products can be used inside as well as out.

“Another avenue we are looking to grow is international markets and are looking at the US just now.

“We currently have some products on Amazon US.”

BBQ shack investment

As well as looking to expand sales there is the opening of the new BBQ school.

Mr Fraser said: “Our experiences overseas and in the last seven years working in BBQ has given us so much inspiration and we love to share that passion with people.

Scott and Malissa Fraser in the new BBQ shack. Picture by Kami Thomson / DC Thomson

“The BBQ school will be able entertain 20 people in a unique space built for demonstrating cooking with fire, smoke and bbq.

“We’ve planted a herb garden which is used for the school and staff lunches.

“We’ll introduce schools on curing, cold smoking and seasonal ones.

“We’re all about global flavour and sharing that love of cooking with others.”

Energy cost impact

Speaking about the on-going energy costs crisis Mr Fraser said he was hopeful the business would be largely unaffected as it’s tied into a fixed contract for another two-and-a-half years.

He said: “We are not that bad.

“We don’t cook or refrigerate anything so we’re not as heavy on the drawdown as a lot of businesses are.

“We also have biomass on site which helps.

“Hopefully we will weather the storm relatively well.”

Conversation