Debbie and Andrew met at 17, married at 22 and had four kids. Struggling pig farmers, they diversified into sausage-making and set up Debbie & Andrew’s as a small company in 1999. The pair developed recipes in their family kitchen (where product development still happens) and sourced pork from British farms with high animal welfare standards.
In the early days, Debbie and Andrew designed the packaging themselves-and they are the first to admit that it showed. An initial rebrand in 2003 took them from a blue polystyrene tray with a cartoon of a farm on the label to sleek black trays with eye-catching discs of color. To break with category norms, a second rebrand in 2009 turned the packaging orientation from landscape to portrait. It also featured photos of the owners’ Wellington rubber boots, to emphasize their involvement in the sausage making.
The Bottom Line:Debbie & Andrew’s credit packaging design with establishing brand awareness and massively boosting revenue in the absence of advertising. The brand rocketed from £30,000 ($49,000 USD) in 2001 to £4million ($6.5 million USD) in 2007, with continued growth of 42.9 percent the year after the second rebrand. Debbie & Andrew’s is now number one in the branded premium sausage sector.(Package design: Elmwood, www.elmwood.com)
