NEWS REVIEW
A man who is reckoned to have made over 300,000 tonnes of sausages – enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium several times over – has celebrated thirty years in the business.
With a reputation as a problem solver, Rodney Masters was joined by around twenty of his colleagues to celebrate three decades as the London sausage supremo.
After a grounding in the meat business as an abattoir slaughterman and a period with pork in sausages, pies and hams, he joined raw frozen sausage manufacturer Plumtree Farms in 1977.
Mr. Masters was instrumental in streamlining and expanding production at its Hackney Wick factory (and also moving into burger production) before transferring to sister company Plumtree Foods as operations director in 2000 to embrace the new concept of fully cooked and frozen sausages.
Plumtree Foods was later re-named Snowbird Foods and is now the UK's largest supplier of fully cooked sausages. Over time it has diversified into other fully cooked products, including meat balls, koftes and dough balls.
Recalling how Mr. Masters earned his reputation as a can-do manager, Snowbird chairman John Drage said he had always managed to make it appear that no problem was insoluble.
"I used to reckon if he was faced with the triple problems of no factory, no ingredients and no staff, Mr Masters would still deliver the order on time," he said.
Mr. Drage presented Mr. Masters with an inscribed silver tankard to mark the occasion.