UK: Royal shortbread maker planning vegan biscuits

From telegraph.co.uk

Move comes as the 125-year old company looks to ‘move with the times’ 

The King’s shortbread maker is preparing to go vegan.

Walker’s Shortbread, the 125 year-old Scottish biscuit maker and royal warrant holder, is exploring how to create a vegan version of its best-selling product in an effort to broaden its appeal.

Managing director Nicky Walker, who is a fourth-generation member of the business’ founding family, said: “Vegan is very much something we’re looking at right now.

“We like our product to be globally accepted, whether that means kosher, organic, gluten-free… we want to have our product enjoyed by as many different factions as possible.”

Changing appetites mean the vegan market has become a worthwhile target for the brand CREDIT: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Founded in 1898 by Joseph Walker, Walker’s shortbread is one of Scotland’s best-known brands and is known for the red and black tartan on its packaging.

Walker’s was granted a royal warrant to supply the late Queen Elizabeth II with shortbread in 2017. Prior to that it held a warrant for the supply of oat cakes to the late Queen Mother and the royal household.

The business makes a range of biscuits, cakes and oatcakes but is most associated with its all-butter shortbread.

Mr Walker said vegan shortbread would help the Speyside-headquartered company “move with the times”.

“If there’s an opportunity to develop the brand for certain consumers, it would be foolish not to regard and consider that,” he said.

Developing a vegan alternative would involve finding a non-dairy alternative to butter for its shortbread.

Mr Walker said: “Our company's reputation has been built on using the finest ingredients possible. We would never compromise on that, we’ve got to get the very best we can.”

The company sells its products across the world in markets such as the USA, Canada, Australia and China.

Walker’s recently cut back on the number of products it makes in a bid to make the business more efficient in the wake of Covid and staff shortages the company blamed on Brexit.

Mr Walker said: “We had to build the business back up sustainably in a fashion that will hold us for the next 125 years.”

He said the company was now trading above pre-Covid levels.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/03/kings-shortbread-maker-poised-go-vegan/