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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To decide not to buy Heck sausages after "The Fixer" last night.

159 replies

higgle · 09/09/2014 11:06

I presume the Keebles family who run this business thought that by being on The Fixer with the seriously lovely Alex Polizzi people would want to buy more of their stupidly named sausages. The whole programme made me decide never to try them. This hugely self entitled family lived the high life in a rented farmhouse, drove around in a Range Rover and felt they should enjoy a seriously large income from making sausages and selling them to Tesco and others. They employed their daughter who couldn't be bothered to get up in the mornings as head of marketing (aged 18) and their son who hadn't got a clue, and clearly demonstrated that selling to a school catering business was beneath him.

Their marketing philosophy seemed to involve making video clips of themselves doing twatish things like rolling down hills and giggling. They spent time deciding whether people were "Heck" or "not Heck" The whole thing was like Pedlars doing food.

So, please not I will not be contributing to support your Joules/Boden/Aga type rural idlyl with my sausage shopping money, I'll continue to buy from the nice "Black Farmer". IABU?

OP posts:
Browneyesblue · 09/09/2014 13:02

It was a merger, not a murder!

Trickydecision · 09/09/2014 13:11

Browney how disappointing! I was imagining a Sweeney Todd scenario with the victim turning up in the sausages. That would have sent the business down the tubes all right.

OP, YANBU.

IScreamForIceCream · 09/09/2014 13:23

So this article gives a good potted history. Basically after 5 ish years, D&A sold to a bigger company in order to achieve more scale but stayed on as directors. That firm floundered a bit and merged with (poss not so friendly) another company, who were then acquired by a big food company. In all that, he left first then she did later. By then the terms of their original deal had expired so they could start again.i guess they had the house etc already and needed the new sausage income to continue as before?

Agree that they did not come across too well. I work in branding and marketing, so hate it when these stupid programmes make it look like it is that easy, that any idiot could roll down a hill and get a strong brand out of it. A bit surprised that they seemed to ill at ease with basic business, eg the margins, and not really having a clue what their brand was standing for, yet having spent all that money on design and packaging.

DidoTheDodo · 09/09/2014 13:28

A merger? Disappointed. Was hoping for Midsomer Sausages.

HappyAgainOneDay · 09/09/2014 13:29

I'm half way through watching the programme on iplayer. The children really are not interested in the future of the business. I find it difficult to understand what the girl says sometimes. Perhaps my understanding will get better as the programme progresses.

I also notice that the wife looks towards the husband for agreement in what she says and the girl looked towards her brother. Does that tell us something?

Dogs in a kitchen? Well!

combust22 · 09/09/2014 13:30

Sausages are full of crap anyway. nasty things. It's all the leftover bits no-one would buy if they were in a recognisable form. I don't buy them.

MmeMorrible · 09/09/2014 13:31

YY I'm another who was shouting at the TV. Both children were awful and needed to get proper jobs ASAP.

I couldn't believe the parents paid £4.5k of parking fines (no doubt from the business account) for their entitled, arrogant arse of a son.

I suppose paying big salaries to their kids enables them to make a 'loss' so they don't pay any tax at business rates.HmmHmm

squoosh · 09/09/2014 13:32

I love nasty leftover bits.

WildThong · 09/09/2014 13:33

Haven't heard of them either. What was the outcome - are they a success?

combust22 · 09/09/2014 13:34

squoosh- that's nice. Do you eat all the stuff that has fallen down the side of the fridge too?

JuniDD · 09/09/2014 13:35

My DP was shouting at the telly. When the son didn't even know how much the sausages cost at the school...WTF did they actually do?!

I think Alex does a lot of "darling" when she's massively pissed off but it helps her to stay calm to use a term of endearment. She only does it when she's annoyed. I love her so much.

squoosh · 09/09/2014 13:41

'Do you eat all the stuff that has fallen down the side of the fridge too?'

What, like pencils and fridge magnets? No dear, that doesn't sound very sensible does it?

trufflesnout · 09/09/2014 13:41

It's all meat though combust, it's not like it's fallen down the side of the fridge. Grizzly or not that animal died and if you're willing to eat the fillet you should be willing to eat the less choice bits too

WhoNeedsEnemies · 09/09/2014 13:44

I'm watching it now. What spoilt brats their kids are!

figgypuddings · 09/09/2014 13:45

Irritating family and I will not be buying their sausages as a result.

The father suddenly became terribly social media savvy and namedropped 'FaceTube'. Grin

ProfYaffle · 09/09/2014 13:45

If you buy decent sausages they're just made out of plain old meat. Nothing grizzly or out of the ordinary.

combust22 · 09/09/2014 13:46

Why is that truffle? There are lots of the bits of the animal I would rather not eat. Gristle, hooves, skin, nostrils, brain, anus.

Why should I be willing to eat those?

trufflesnout · 09/09/2014 13:50

Because it's wasteful not to. It's fair enough not liking something, but imo if you're willing to slaughter an animal and then let parts go to waste just because they don't sound nice, then that's not very ethical or fair to whatever was just killed to feed you.

HappyAgainOneDay · 09/09/2014 13:53

I suppose they'll get somewhere for a while. I was put off by the rubber gloves handling the food. Somehow their 'flavour' gets into the food and is a right put off. Eg I've been buying a dip from a newly popular supermarket and it has this hidden flavour that emerges in an aftertaste.

Dishes (cups, in particular) that have been washed with the washer up using rubber gloves also attract a flavour of rubber / latex. I hate drinking tea from a cup that's been washed like that.

And as for the dogs being in the ktichen .....

HappyAgainOneDay · 09/09/2014 13:54

Oh, and although the best sausages were described as having 97% pork in them, a lot of what went into the incing machine was fat - which still qualifies to be called pork.

BewitchedBotheredandBewildered · 09/09/2014 13:54

Agree with you all about the family especially the useless children.

'Heck' is a ridiculous name for a sausage anyway, and why did they think everyone would assume free range, organic fabulousness?
Have they never read any other sausage packaging blurb?

Love Alex P. and her 'dahling' all over the place. maybe just me but I always hear a subtle p/a, patronizing tone! Just when people deserve it Grin

squoosh · 09/09/2014 13:55

Nose to tail eating is all the rage in foodie circles. I think I'd be up for trying most animal parts if they were well cooked and well presented.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 09/09/2014 13:58

Squoosh-you do make me laughGrin

I'll watch this on iplayer and report back later!

IScreamForIceCream · 09/09/2014 13:58

The sausages that they were making in the kitchen weren't the commercial ones though, we're they? They were just twiddling about with flavour and wih non - premixed spicing. The shot of the commercial production bit looked very sanitary.

combust22 · 09/09/2014 13:58

It doesn't get wasted though- by products of the meat industry are used to make cosmetics, paint, cleaners, polishes, glue, soap, pet food, fertilizer.

Very little of the animal is wasted, even if we choose not to eat he gruesome bits, don't imagine they will be dumped into landfill.