A MARLBOROUGH firm is crowing over rocketing snack sales, fired by a growing taste for crunchy chicken.

Little Bobby Jebb Foods was the first in the world to produce commercial chicken crackling and it’s going down so well the company is producing two tonnes of it a week.

Founder Robert Jebb started up not long before the pandemic, and originally had no background in chefing.

Being a farmer’s son, he has always been passionate about food and seeing where it comes from.

“I had no food manufacturing experience. I basically learned about the food industry as I went a long. I’m a keen cook but by no means chef-trained,” he said.

“Creating a business from scratch was obviously the primary focus and objective but the fact it was food I love as well is just a bonus.”

It was his wife who gave him the concept to develop one of the latest products; the crumb.

He said: “She wouldn’t have any interest in going to supermarkets and buying a bag of chicken crackling in the same way she wouldn’t go and buy pork scratchings.

“But she would go to the salad aisle and buy a crumb. It’s exactly the same product but it’s talking to a different audience.

“The journey has been quite interesting. Lots of ups and downs. The hardest thing so far was probably developing the equipment in the facility to create the product that we wanted.

“When we faced challenges, it was; how do we solve those challenges? And my production team would say we need a machine that does this, that and the other, that would be great. But that machine didn’t exist, so it was a case of going out and finding someone to build it for us.

“It was an exciting challenge but it was certainly a challenge.”

Mr Jeb added that it has taken them a lot of dedication to get to where they are.

“Building relationships in the industry for suppliers, for someone like me who wasn’t in the industry it’s taken a while to be taken seriously if that makes sense,” he said.

“It was very difficult to get into those relationships and speak to the top players who take the time to go ok, I see what you’re doing; we can help.”

The snack challenges traditional pub favourite pork scratchings, acting as a healthier with a high protein, low sugar, all British recipe.

Michelin-Starred chef Simon Hulstone, who has the Elephant restaurant in Torquay, Devon is working with the firm to develop recipes using the crackling.

Going forward, Mr Jebb has big plans for his company, and wants to see the brand grow more.

He said: “It’s quite exciting to sit around and go; we’ve got a snack. And then going; if we do this, we could have a product that could go on a Michelin star menu, and if we do that to it, we could create something completely different again. It’s that string of extensions which are coming from one starting point.”

Visit chickencrackling.com for more.