Bury Black Pudding Company, Heap Bridge, Bury

BUSINESSWOMAN Debbie Pierce has certainly found the recipe for success when it comes to manufacturing and marketing Bury’s most famous delicacy.

Her successful Bury Black Pudding Company’s products are now available on the shelves at most of Britain’s top supermarkets.

Starting from a market stall, Debbie has built up the business into a thriving, and still growing enterprise, which today employs a 50-strong workforce at its £750,000 Bridge Hall Lane base in Heap Bridge.

She said: “We manufacture traditional, quality black pudding, packaged in either rings, slices or catering sticks.

“We supply to supermarkets, butchers, hotels, restaurants, pub chains, farm shops and to individual customers through our internet site and market stall.”

Debbie launched the company seven years ago on a shoestring budget of £1,000. She said: “I realised there was a massive gap in the market, particularly within the supermarkets, for good-quality black pudding. Within three months, I found myself in a meeting with a buyer at Asda head office, being accepted as a new supplier. My vision of seeing this little northern delicacy, ‘black gold’, on every supermarket shelf in the UK was born.”

In 2006, with a major production facility required to cater for demand, the business transferred to its current factory which churns out more than 28 tonnes of black puddings a week.

Today, Bury Black Pudding Company supplies Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Co-op, Iceland, Budgens/Londis and Booker. Looking to the future, Debbie said: “I want to see The Bury Black Pudding Company logo on every supermarket shelf, in every food service brochure and on every menu in the UK. We have only scratched the surface of what business is actually out there, there is still room to grow the business within our current customer base.”