Backchannelmedia

Scotsman, The

By Jonathan Lessware

ONE of Scotland's richest aristocrats has formed an unlikely alliance with QVC - the cable television home-shopping channel famous for offering an endless stream of tacky jewellery and cheap clothing.

The Duke of Buccleuch, who owns a priceless art collection and can trace his lineage back centuries, is reaping the rewards from a lucrative partnership selling food through the channel.

Despite the channel being principally aimed at the cheap-and- cheerful end of the market, the duke's food division has been making significant profits by selling packs of steak burgers at GBP 26 for ten and ribeye hand-cut beef steaks at nearly GBP 50 for eight. Buccleuch Foods now has its own regular slot for selling products made from ingredients sourced from the duke's estates in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

The firm's turnover from sales on the station is expected to creep towards GBP 1.4 million by the end of this financial year. If the projections are correct, the figure will be nearly double that of last year, when it turned over GBP 750,000.

In a recent programme, the sales of pies made from a recipe developed by a Borders farmer reached GBP 924 a minute for nearly 20 minutes before they sold out.

Last month, Buccleuch burgers raked in a massive GBP 2,000 a minute, selling about 12 tonnes in one day. The channel's target for sales is believed to be about GBP 250 per minute.

The phenomenal success of the products, which used to only be available in some of the UK's top restaurants including the Witchery by the Castle in Edinburgh, looks set to continue. Representatives for the duke are currently in talks with QVC over supplying Buccleuch sausages to the United States.

Brian Forrester, Buccleuch Foods' managing director, and a butcher, said: "I didn't think it was for us. I thought our food would not sell well on TV. It wasn't a channel I had watched. People are much more aware of what they are eating. Now they want quality and are prepared to pay for it, but it's not readily available for them.

"With QVC, we have made it easy to buy the foods. Otherwise, they would have to go to a private retail butcher six to seven miles away."

Simon Hoten, QVC's senior buyer for homewares, said: "Due to their immediate popularity with our customers we extended the product range into a full, one-hour show."