DESPITE its growing success, a Tynedale sausage company has not forgotten its roots.

The Northumberland Sausage Company has grown from humble beginnings in a Wark butchers, to opening a new unit in the Grainger Market in Newcastle.

The company started life in 2011 at Wark Village Butchers, after Claire Watson-Laney and her father bought the premises in 2010.

Fast forward five years and the company has gone from employing two members of staff and making up to 20kg of sausages a week, to 32 members of staff.

Within a year, Northumberland Sausage Company was making over two tonnes of sausages and had moved to a factory in West Woodburn.

During the peak period, the company now makes a whopping six tonnes of sausages per week.

On November 2, the North Tyne company expanded further to include Sausology, a unit based in Newcastle’s Grainger Market.

And this isn’t your average city centre sausage unit – Sausology offers the chance to create your own bespoke sausages.

A fully trained ‘sausologist’ works with customers to design something truly unique to them.

Managing director and scientist, Claire, said: “Our sausologist works with customers to design their own sausages so what they don’t usually like about sausages, they can get rid of and design something they love!”

Customers can buy boxes of sausages, black pudding, steak burgers and a range of dry cured bacon including treacle, maple and chilli cure.

Also on sale are sausage machines, sausage skins, rusk and seasoning so everyone get into the sausage making process.

Claire added: “We are trying to show people that they can ask questions about their food and get involved.

“Sausages are a well-loved food but health worries can bring uncertainty into eating them.

“We want everyone to be able to enjoy them and learn how to make them right for themselves and their families.”

The company shows no signs of stopping.

Future plans include more Sausology shops in the North-East and expansion into other counties.

“We have an aim of 10 shops within the next five years and further shops will include the sausage making experience classes we currently hold at Brocksbushes Farm Shop,” Claire added.

“Grainger Market and Brocksbushes will merge into one design for our next shop.”

Despite its success, Northumberland Sausage Company has not forgotten its roots and is still heavily involved with the butchers in Wark, something which is important to Claire.

She said: “We still run the butchers with the same staff as we had when we bought it.

“It’s hard work to keep it going, as small local shops struggle in today’s world, but we want our community to have a local butcher’s and hope to keep it open for as long as we can.”

Northumberland Sausage Company and Sausology are trying to do something different in the world of meat, believing that food should be all about choice.

Claire said: “By openly discussing what we like and dislike, our customers can create something that they designed from scratch that they trust and enjoy.

“It awards customers a knowledge and control that up until now has not been possible.”