WITH growth in food sales in Scotland running ahead of the UK average in spite of pressure on household incomes, we hear from a resourceful entrepreneur who has developed an unusual range of cooking ingredients.

Name:

Graham Johnston.

Age:

35.

What is your business called?

Smoky Brae.

What does it produce, what services does it offer?

Smoky Brae is an award winning traditional Scottish smokehouse producing naturally smoked ingredients. We smoke all our ingredients with Scottish oak in small batches. Every product is blended and packaged by hand.

Our products include award winning rubs, our signature Smoked Sugar and ingredients such as Smoked Fennel Pepper, Smoked Sesame Seeds, Smoked Gravlax Cure and Smoked Chilli Flakes.

We also have gift sets. Our pocket sets allow people to flavour on the go.

Where is it based?

Chapelton, South Lanarkshire. We live in the country and have a converted outhouse and other buildings for use in the smoking and production process.

To whom does it sell?

We supply to farm shops, delis, garden centres such as Dobbies, department stores including The House of Bruar and online. We also supply to restaurants, producers and caterers.

How many employees?

Two.

When was it formed?

October 2015.

Why did you take the plunge?

I have always had a passion for cooking and while making a BBQ sauce one day I felt a smokey and sweet flavour was missing. This encouraged me to search for smoked sugar or a smoked sugar syrup but I could not find them in the UK. I decided to experiment by smoking my own sugar with fantastic and surprising results and realised I had to go further.

Basically, I spent 14 months working on Smoky Brae before I launched my first product. Traditional smoking takes a lot of time and skill to master, there are no shortcuts.

I first started experimenting with a bread bin smoke unit and some smoked sugar in summer 2014. I kept testing this out until I made contact with Steven Lamb, the curing and smoking experts at River Cottage, in early January 2015. He was very helpful in providing me with practical guidance on how to set up a small commercial smoke facility.

Following some advice from Steven, I ordered a large stainless steel catering cabinet that I adapted to be my first smoke chamber and which I used to launch my business.I spent the next next nine months testing various grades of wood, sawdust, sugar and packaging until I was ready for launch in October 2015.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

I specialised in 3D Design at art school and spent a couple of years freelancing and designing my own products. These included vases that could be mounted on a wall and hung like a picture. I then spent eight years working in branding and marketing. The experience I gained has proved to be invaluable in setting up Smoky Brae.

How did you raise the start-up funding?

Smoky Brae has been self funded, with the help of a personal loan from the government’s Start Up Loan Fund last year to help launch some new products.

What was your biggest break?

There were two:

1. Winning the BBC Good Food Show Bursary Award - this provided me with a free stand at the BBC Good Food Show Glasgow in 2016 and opened my eyes up to consumer fairs. I will be attending around 16 similar shows in 2018 as a direct result.

2. The personal loan from the Start Up Loan Fund, which allowed me to expand the business quickly in 2017 by launching seven new product lines, two gift sets, buy equipment and attend lots of trade shows.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

Scotland has lots of amazing artisan food businesses and for such a competitive sector I have been amazed how open, honest and helpful other small food producers have been. It is great to feel part of such a supportive community and meeting other food producers.

One amazing recent opportunity was being invited to 10 Downing Street in November to exhibit and network with other local and small businesses as part of Small Business Saturday, this was a real highlight of 2017 for Smoky Brae.

What do you least enjoy?

I regularly attend large consumer and trade fairs which results in me being away from my family for extended periods of time which I find difficult, especially now as I have two wee boys waiting for me at home.

What are your ambitions for the firm?

To continue to grow and develop new and exciting products.

What are your top priorities?

More family time; to source new packaging; to increase production capacity and improve production methods; to grow online sales; to focus on all social media channels.

What single thing would most help?

Access to heavily subsided or unused premises for production/packaging/warehousing to allow the business to expand without rental costs wiping out all profits.

What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help?

Provide easily accessible grants for small businesses.

What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?

Never purchase large quantities of stock before you receive a purchase order.

How do you relax?

Hanging out with my family; generally outdoors skiing, climbing or biking.