Alf Turner Premium Scotch Egg

Hampshire butcher brand Alf Turner has unveiled a new Premium Scotch Egg.

Available in Co-op stores from 1 January, the product will join the brand’s popular Dragon’s Egg in the chilled convenience fixture (price TBC).

The new product is made for the brand by Tulip and uses British sausagemeat. “It’s basically the Dragon’s Egg without the chilli,” said owner Paul Turner, who added retailers had previously been reluctant to launch a brand into a Scotch egg category which was dominated by own label.

“We first launched the Dragon’s Egg with Co-op, and that’s just gone from strength to strength. Off the back of that, we proved we could work as a brand within the category, so we decided to try a premium scotch egg variant,” said Turner.

The brand first launched almost eight years ago, and then secured an £80,000 investment from Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones in 2012. The original Alf Turner butcher shop was opened by Paul Turner’s grandfather Alf in Aldershot during the 1950’s, and continues to trade today.

Alf Turner has now sold over a million Dragon’s Eggs, and increased listings of the product from just 100 Co-op stores three years ago to almost 700 Co-op stores, in addition to other retailers such as Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.

The brand, which has also raised more than £130,000 for forces charity Help for Heroes, had plans for further listings for the scotch egg and for other new products in the new year, added Turner.