A HANDMADE product created by a County Durham entrepreneur is on to the shelves of top London stores Fortnum & Masons and Harvey Nichols.
Butter Fingers - sticks of butter hand-blended with other ingredients, both sweet and savoury - are made by Kairen Dods at her base on the Dabble Duck Industrial Estate, in Shildon.
Singapore-born Ms Dods started the business almost a year ago and is now supplying Butter Fingers to farm shops, delis and restaurants around the UK as well as the famous London shops.
Since the summer she has taken on two part-time staff to help meet demand and has changed the packaging, so customers can see what’s inside. Ms Dods said: “It was part of the strategy to try the top names first once I’d got the packaging right. I sent samples and phoned up the buyers.
“I’m doing a demonstration at Harvey Nicks this weekend..”
Customer demonstrations and visits to food shows have proved vital in promoting the brand, which comes in 100g sticks of butter containing sweet or savoury flavours. The product can be frozen, so cooks can cut off a disc of butter as and when they need it.
Ms Dods said: “It was something I did for dinner parties and friends and family liked it, so I said ‘take some home with you’. They said they would like to buy something like this, so I incubated the idea for about 12 months.”
