A new London-branded sausage has been launched to give the capital’s meat-lovers a regional speciality to call their own. The Original London Banger, which is claimed to be London’s first locally-branded sausage, has gone on sale in Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons stores in London with an rrp of £2.29 for a pack of eight.

The sausages are manufactured at the Tulip Peckham factory, just off the Old Kent Road. They have a 72% meat content and are made with British quality-assured pork, with pepper, mace, marjoram and sage. Alternative flavours are also planned.

They were pitched at a ‘standard plus’ price level to persuade consumers to trade up from standard options such as Richmond or down from premium offerings such as The Black Farmer, said Tulip account director Peter Beck. The products would capitalise on Londoners’ love of sausages, he claimed, citing statistics showing nearly a quarter (21.9%) of Britain’s bangers had been consumed in the capital in the past year [TNS, 52 w/e 18 May], ahead of the Midlands (16.6%) and the South (12.3%).

London Banger will be backed by an £800,000 London transport marketing campaign, with a series of light-hearted ‘cockney’ ads on tubes and buses until mid-December and sampling in stores and at Waterloo station. The brand will also sponsor the New Year’s Day parade.

Sausage sales have grown in the last quarter, as consumers switched to cheaper meats, with premium up 11% to £40m, standard up 18% to £35m and value up 31% to £2m for the 12 weeks to 16 October [TNS].