Here at Society, we love a success story and it’s fair to say that Scott and Malissa Fraser have quite the triumphant tale.
The lovely pair are of course the power couple behind Angus & Oink, and launched their venture in 2014 in a bid to shake up the world of barbecuing.
Their sauces and spice rubs were inspired by the couple’s travels around the world, and their flavoursome venture soon gathered pace back home in the north-east.
Fast forward to 2023, and the simple concept has grown arms, legs, and an entire factory in Aboyne!
This is no longer a kitchen table pipe dream, but a fierce production line complete high tech machinery, which has enabled Scott and Malissa to send their products global.
They now export to distributors in Holland, Italy, Lithuania, Ireland and Australia to name but a few, and have even conquered the US market.
Named a best seller on Amazon and with sold out barbecue schools to boot, the couple remain both humble and passionate about their shared love of “kick-ass rubs, seasonings & sauces.”
The business is now based at Deeside Activity Park in Aboyne, and the barbecue schools have sold out for the rest of 2023.
The initiative enables people to learn all things barbecue, from heat zones to technique and includes a mouth watering menu boasting Hanger Steak Tacos and
BBQ Chicken Thighs – all seasoned with Angus & Oink of course.
We caught up with Scott and Malissa, and found out why they’re keeping their feet firmly on the ground, and not a burnt sausage in sight.
Can we have a brief recap, when did your first launch with those famous 3 signature products?
Angus & Oink began over 9 years ago after Malissa and I had spent almost a decade traveling the world, living and working in the Americas & Middle East.
Whilst based overseas we took the opportunity to travel as much as we could, usually with one thing on our minds; great local & flavourful food.
We found it in abundance and it really inspired the early stages of Angus & Oink.
When we returned to Aberdeen in 2014, we started making and selling hot sauces in small batches that we produced at home in our wee kitchen.
Our first three products were: Phat Taco, Red Dawg Apache & Voodoo Mango.
We sold them at farmers markets and to small retailers across the north east and grew the brand from there.
To this day we are still producing these three products, albeit in much larger quantities.
Talk me through how you’ve evolved, did you ever expect to grow into a multi-million pound business?
The evolution of Angus & Oink has been very organic; we live and breathe what we do and it seems to have struck a chord with our customers across the UK and overseas.
From 2016 – 2019 our growth had been steady & gradual, building year-on year.
We then experienced high levels of growth during the Covid pandemic in 2020, when our direct to consumer sales went into orbit!
This enabled us to move into larger premises and to invest in machinery and scale-up our production operation to meet the increased demand for A&O rubs, seasonings & sauces.
The growth and popularity of Angus & Oink has already far surpassed our initial expectations and ambitions; it often blows our minds when we see our rubs being enjoyed all around the world.
Tell me about some of your most memorable wins and punch the air moments?
There’s been so many of them throughout the years but here’s some that spring to mind:
– Everytime our customers tell us how much they love A&O rubs!
– Sending out our first pallets of product for distribution overseas
– Building a new warehouse to accommodate our expansion in 2022
– Exporting our products to Australia & USA
– Seeing our Sweet Bones & Butts rub named as Number 1 Best Seller on Amazon
What gave you the idea for BBQ School, and was there a gap in the market?
The BBQ Schools are something that we’ve been doing for years, initially we ran them from the wee BBQ shack at our house.
Now we host them at our purpose built outdoor kitchen in Aboyne.
They’re a great opportunity for beginners and hardcore BBQ enthusiasts to learn some skills, meet like-minded people and eat some great + tasty food.
How has it been received so far?
The BBQ Schools have been really well received – we had limited spaces available and they all sold out very quickly.
We would love to be able to run these every week as it’s great to share our passion for cooking with everyone, unfortunately for us the day job gets in the way!
Barbecuing seems to be viewed as a predominantly male hobby, have you had both genders attend?
We have both men & women at all of our BBQ School events.
Great BBQ food is there to be enjoyed by everyone and thankfully the tired stereotype of it being a male-dominated hobby is slowly becoming a thing of the past.
There are some really great female brand ambassadors we work with that produce exceptional content.
What’s the secret to producing authentic delicious dishes with the barbecue thrown into the mix?
The secret is: patience, a bit of knowledge and plenty of Angus & Oink rubs & sauces!
We teach people to cook on colour, build layers of flavour from seasoning through to wood choice and then use side dishes to really deliver an eating experience.
What’s next, world domination? Also will you be offering further dates for barbecue experiences?
We plan to continue to make kick-ass rubs, seasonings & sauces and to also increase our exports to the USA, Canada and mainland Europe.
We’ll be offering more BBQ School dates in Spring / Summer 2024.
What’s your favourite dish thus far?
Scott – I’m completely fanatical about tacos. When you get them right they verge on a religious experience.
There are so many varieties and fusions, I never tire of learning about tacos!
Malissa – Being married to Scott I am absolutely spoilt with great food, but a dish I love to cook is a Gumbo, with all the meat smoked on the BBQ, this is my son’s favourite and we often cook it together.
Sometimes the best meal is not always about the food (although this does taste great), it’s about the feelings and memories it invokes.
To find out more about Angus & Oink, visit the website at angusandoink.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
