A SCOTCH egg maker in Bolton has seen business boom after the popular savory snack hit headlines a few weeks ago.

Brendan Baury runs The Happy Belly, a food firm specialising in artisan scotch eggs. 
The 45-year-old, originally from South Africa, has been recreating the British favourite for nine years, after moving to Bolton with his Lancashire-born wife in 2010.

Recent discussions over whether scotch eggs count as a substantial meal have seen business boom for the dad-of-two.

He said: "The last couple of weeks things have been quite good for us – especially with Tier 2 pubs needing to serve substantial meals and the debate about whether scotch eggs count. 

"Everyone's talking about them and it's been great for us, the more people talk about them, the more they think about going to buy one.

"We've also had a significant increase in business enquiries from pubs in Tier 2 areas which has been great – obviously these are pubs outside the area as we're in Tier 3 but it's been really good to be able to do that.

"We produce a high quality product, made by hand and from scratch here in Bolton, and being able to get them out to our customers and the response they get is fantastic."

Under the current coronavirus restrictions, pubs and restaurants in Tier 2 areas are only able to serve alcohol alongside a substantial meal, which has generated a lot of debate over what counts as substantial.

Some government ministers have agreed that alcohol could be served alongside scotch eggs within the rules, whilst others weren't so sure. 

Mr Baury is certain that his creations, which he originally sold at specialised food markets across the North West, would meet the criteria.

He said: ""We definitely are a substantial meal – if you went into a pub and had one of these with a pint you'd be full. 

"We quite often get comments back from customers saying they didn't expect them to be as filling as they are. 

"They're very popular, sometimes we'll have a delivery arranged for one of the delis we work with and we'll get a call asking when the eggs are due to arrive because people are queueing up outside to collect them. 

"It's fantastic to see so many people are interesting in trying our product, and so many people are coming back as return customers. 

"Providing nobody gets struck down with covid, I think it's going too be a very busy few weeks for us."

Happy Belly scotch eggs are available in eight different flavours, including black pudding, pulled pork, spicy chorizo, and all day breakfast.