Jamie, Roddy and Ellie Keeble: HECK FOOD

Jamie, Roddy and Ellie Keeble, 24, 20 and 18
Company: HECK FOOD
Web: www.heckfood.co.uk

Three of the youngest entrepreneurs on our index, sibling trio Jamie, Roddy and Ellie Keeble have achieved the remarkable feat of starting a business in Britain’s notoriously congested food market and growing it into a major player with more than £2m turnover in its first year of business. The trio describe the business as a “new kid on the block with older kids behind it” – it is the Keeble family’s second sausage business after parents Debbie and Andrew Keeble set up leading brand debbie and andrews more than 15 years ago.

This time around, the company’s stated aim is to get a younger audience back into eating sausages following the meat industry’s image-damaging horsemeat scandal a year ago – through its combination of quirky branding, hand-mixed and locally sourced meat and “what the heck” attitude, it is well on its way to achieving this aim. Already stocked in major supermarkets including Tesco, Morrison’s, Asda and Waitrose, the Keeble family expect to grow revenues to £5.5m in 2014, backed by £1m investment.