Walker’s Shortbread is exploring how to create a vegan version of its best-selling product in an effort to further broaden its appeal.
Managing director Nicky Walker, who is a fourth-generation member of the business’ founding family, said vegan shortbread would help the Speyside-headquartered company “move with the times”.
Developing a vegan alternative would involve finding a non-dairy alternative to butter for the 125 year-old Scottish biscuit maker and royal warrant holder.
“Vegan is very much something we’re looking at right now," Mr Walker told The Daily Telegraph at the weekend.
“We like our product to be globally accepted, whether that means kosher, organic, gluten-free… we want to have our product enjoyed by as many different factions as possible.”
Founded in 1898 by Joseph Walker, Walker’s shortbread is one of Scotland’s best-known brands.
Walker’s was granted a royal warrant to supply the late Queen Elizabeth II with shortbread in 2017. Prior to that it held a warrant for the supply of oat cakes to the late Queen Mother and the royal household.
The business makes a range of biscuits, cakes and oatcakes but is most associated with its all-butter shortbread.
The company sells its products across the world in markets such as the USA, Canada, Australia and China.
Walker’s recently cut back on the number of products it makes in a bid to make the business more efficient in the wake of Covid and staff shortages the company blamed on Brexit.
Mr Walker said: “We had to build the business back up sustainably in a fashion that will hold us for the next 125 years.”
He said the company was now trading above pre-Covid levels.