PRODUCT innovation resulted in a record breaking year and international fame for a York family food firm.

Following years of consistent growth The York Roast Co is hoping to impress judges in the Family Business of the Year and Business Innovation of the Year categories with it boom in trade over the last 12 months.

The business has attributed its recent development to innovation and creative and modern marketing, but specifically has enjoyed record breaking success as a result of a unique new product that generated worldwide attention: The YorkyPud Wrap.

Wayne Chadwick, who runs the business with his son Stephen, said: “We had earned a reputation for excellence for our core products, and the business was growing annually.

“We believe strongly in moving forward, however, so were keen to develop new products.

“To this end, we came up with the idea for The YorkyPud Wrap, a hot roast meal encased in a Yorkshire pudding wrap.

“We launched the product in March 2017 and it was immediately popular. “Within a few months, it accounted for 15 per cent of our sales. Then, on September 19, 2017, we stepped up our facebook promotions and our business.

“Our post that day, with an image of a filled wrap, went viral. It was shared 31,454 times, generated 50,454 ‘likes’ and whetted the appetite of the media.”

The York Roast Co was contacted by the BBC who produced a video featuring the YorkyPud Wrap that was viewed 19.9 million times on facebook, and went around the world. Online magazines Ladbible and Unilad also approached them, and the firm went on to create its own video which was shared and viewed on the site more than 15 million times, leading to further publicity from The Press, The Guardian, ITV This Morning, The One Show and Reuters TV, whose video was made available to international media.

Mr Chadwick said: “Our facebook audience soared and we received messages from around the world.

“Within a few days, we had long queues outside every one of our shops, and we were doing yet more media interviews. As demand rose, The YorkyPud Wrap accounted for 80 per cent of sales.”

As a result of the success the business, which has five shops in total, invested in fitting out two trailers and now takes The YorkyPud Wrap on tour across northern England, with plans to add another two trailers next year.

To support growth, the business has taken new warehouse premises outside York city centre and plans further shop openings next year.