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

[higgle]

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?

...not to mention condescending and patronising..

D & A sausages were ok but ridiculously over-salted. Another vote for Black Farmer or Co-op.

Didn't the owner of heck just comment on the last page...

Hello Debbie, you're very brave coming on this board!

My family know that when we get to yelling at the telly, I'll point out that what ANY programme is doing (X factor, GBBO, Strickly, even University Challenge), is making a TV programme. That's the primary motive. Edit it in such a way that the public are talking about it afterwards.

The Keebles didn't come off looking good through that particular lens, but from a business angle there were some nice story arcs - examining the costs of input (seasoning), identifying weaknesses in pitching, seeing what could be done to make the brand identity more obvious, and the volte face reaction to using FaceTube.

Can someone explain the Heck thing to me? I honestly never did get to the bottom of it.

They couldn't decide on a brand name for their sausages so one of them said, "What the heck shall we call them?" The story of how they came to that name was told on the programme but not as it actually happened. The name came from that .....

Me too Debbie what does heck mean?

If Debbie did indeed post on the last page then please send your husband in to do the pitches. He seems to be the only person in the business who actually understands the product. Your son is honestly quite clueless.

See Heck would have been clever if it had any reference at all to pork. But if anything I read Heck and think Peck and so chicken comes to mind.

Maybe something like Bangers would have been better.

sillystring You've chosen an excellent name for yourself. Much like Mrs Keeble who explained why they chose Heck.

I think it's a decent brand name - like Innocent or Virgin. Their mistake was not explaining it on the packaging and on a website.

You'd realise that if you'd bothered to watch it from the beginning.

YANBU
I did not even bother to watch to the end of the programme.
What she was telling them was sub common sense that their accountant should have got through to them well before.
And if they could not guess how the edit would make their kids look, wha else can they not predict about their business.

limited. Hopefully your user name is apt and you won't be around for much longer. Go and get your head out of your fundament honey. Why you're so hot and bothered about some slimey sausages is beyond me, I don't eat them myself, I prefer decent food.

If you really are the owner of Heck sausages, I thought they looked great and would happily scoff any free samples you could send my way

I love sausages.

Bloody hell. Who'd have thought a few poncey sausages could get people so worked up?

Who gives a shit? I like Richmond sausages. They have hangover-salving qualities that yer posho brands don't. All hail the Richmond! Reclaim the humble sausage from the hoorays.

Heck sausages are nice as sausages go. We had some at show a couple of weeks ago and I felt obliged to buy a pack because DS1 nicked some many samples. We had had them before though.

I have to admit I missed most of the programme (bloody football on the other side ) even though we usually watch it, and I was surprised to see Heck on it because we have regularly seen their sausages in the shops and, as I say, we had just seen their stand at Carfest. Not what I was expecting at all. Will have to go and watch it all. Did see the silly daughter being interviewed by her parents and AP but I am not sure I care how silly they are. So long as their sausages taste nice, are a decent quality and don't cost the earth, the fact they are a bit twatish is neither here nor there.

Was that really the mum commenting earlier? I don't think I could come onto Mumsnet and be so polite and restrained unless my reply had been filtered through PR/brand agency first.
I also wouldn't be extending friendly invitations to meet my children to people who have called them lazy/feckless/useless/arrogant arse, unless I was planning to turn those people into the secret ingredient in my new 'Naice Viper Sausage'.

Well I am a vegi so their products wouldn't be bought by me anyway.

I liked the mum and dad (and if that really was the mum posting earlier, then you are a very brave lady).
However the children were very entitled and need a short sharp shock.
I cannot believe their attitude. The way the daughter had backed into a one of their cars with another one and just thought it funny, and the way the son ran up so many parking fines had me yelling at the screen.

The children, and yes I would say this to her in person, need to go out and get a job elsewhere before and learn what they need to do.
They have been giving job titles but no direction.

Slightly off topic but am I a sausage philistine for preferring (the cheapo) sausages that contain some carbs (wheat flour) than the ones that are pure fat/protein (keto friendly)?

YABU. I've just watched the programme on iPlayer, and on't understand all the hatred on this thread. What on earth has the lifestyle of the business owner got to do with whether you're going to buy the product? As for the hygiene issue - it's perfectly obvious that in the sequence complained about they were simply messing around in their own kitchen, but there was no problem whatsoever with hygiene in the factory.

I basically saw small business owners much like those usually featured in this programme. They were making mistakes, which was why they asked for help, they listened to the advice they were given and put it into effect, and reaped the reward. I doubt that what we saw was all that representative of what was going on anyway.

I'm not over keen on 'all meat' sausages either ghost

I've just watched it. I didn't know they were originally Debbie and Andrew's. I've actually emailed Andrew in the past to ask for a list of the seasoning they used as my mum has to be very careful about not eating certain herbs and spices-he was very reluctant and wouldn't let me know what they were and would only check and see if I let him know what mum was intolerant to so I thought that was odd when so much of the programme was dedicated to seasoning with this brand

KEEP THE KIDS AWAY FROM THE BUSINESS-seriously, they should be doing dogs body jobs certainly not representing the company, they make the company look ridiculous, they are far to young and inexperienced. Andrew needs to pitch, no one else.

Alex is spot on, the kids need to go to college or work else where. Honestly I'd roast my ds if he behaved like the daughter did at the mock interviewer

Anyway,I might give them a go,I have seen them in tesco but didn't get the whole 'heck' branding tbh and couldn't be arsed to read the back of the packet.

Andrew rolling down the hill was great, he was getting into the whole spirit of things and clearly a convert to social media now

I agree with the hygiene issue, there was no issue, they were testing stuff out in their own kitchen

YANBU

Awful family.

Pleading poverty yet living the life of Riley.

That is interesting re Debbie and Andrews, as I saw Debbie and Andrews sausages on the shelf when they were showing the supermarket sequences

well I like their sausages. being able to get GF sausages easily is important to me - that they are good quality is also important. didn't see the programme and can't comment on whether the DC are variously overpaid/entitled/useless, but it would not stop me buying the product.

note they still don't have a Facebook page unless I'm missing something.