Andy Holt has made it in black pudding game - but for a long-time, he faced countless doubters.
The 60-year-old jumped at the chance to take up Richard Sanderson Ireland's sale of his business in 1993 - which was then based in a tiny factory in Waterfoot between Rawtenstall and Bacup, Lancashire, and was still using a secret recipe which dated back to 1879.
"A lot of people said 'you're daft, it's only old people who eat black pudding," Andy, now 60, told LancsLive.
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"But fortunately for us it became really popular, thanks to food programmes and top chefs using it, and people were becoming more conscious about where their food comes from.
"I started entering competitions and in the second year won first, second and third place; so we were named the best black pudding in Britain and we've held that title for the best part of 25 years."
Business at the Real Lancashire Black Pudding Co as it's now called also picked up when celebrity chef Rick Stein featured Andy in his Food Heroes series which showed him using the traditional method of mixing pig's blood with pork fat to make the famous black slices.
Things have changed a lot in the more than 20 years since Rick Stein visited and the process is now mostly automated. Andy also no longer uses fresh pig's blood from nearby abbatoirs.
"We used to have a deal with the local slaughterhouses but because we now supply to supermarkets we have to be a lot more stringent with food safety and hygiene rules," Andy said.
"So we now use dried pig's blood, from Spain, which we rehydrate when it gets here. It's just the same but it means the storage and transportation is a lot more straightforward."
The pork fat which is mixed with the blood is British and every week around 188,000 slices of the Real Lancashire Black Pudding is shipped out to major supermarkets including Morrisons, Tesco, Aldi, Booths and the Co-op, as well as to suppliers who sell to top chefs and hotels across the UK.
You might be forgiven for thinking that black pudding, which is considered a delicacy in Bury where it is boiled and served with malt vinegar, was created out of a desire to 'waste not, want not' and use the leftovers from slaughtering pigs, but Andy tells a very different story.
"I've become friends with black and blood pudding makers all over Europe and what I've been told is that it dates back to the Romans," the dad-of-two said.
"When the Romans came to Britain the garrison troops were from all over the empire and a lot of them were Hungarian and that's where our recipe is said to come from. It was a way of preserving food for the troops to take with them as they conquered other countries which is why you find sausages in places which were part of the Roman Empire."
As well as the traditional black pudding Andy, who is now semi-retired but still spends quite a bit of time at the factory in Haslingden "to keep them on their toes", also makes white pudding - made out of the intestines, as well as tripe which he sells to Morrisons.
"I'd love to know the demographic of the people buying the tripe because Morrisons sells a lot of our tripe," Andy said.
Tripe (here's where you might want to scroll down a few paragraphs if you're squeamish) is basically boiled cow's stomach which is then bleached to give it its white colour. Andy's 100 per cent ox tripe has a distinct, and not particularly pleasant smell, and has the consistency of squid.
Andy also makes vegetarian black pudding which was recently featured on celebrity chef Simon Rimmer's Sunday Brunch on Channel 4. Andy's friendship with Simon, and his TV career as one of Britain's best-known black pudding manufacturers, dates back in 2012 when Rimmer came up with a recipe using vegetarian black pudding for the Great British Menu.
The recipe for the veggie black pudding minus the pig's blood (Andy uses soya protein and whey powder with beetroot and caramel for the colour) and pork fat is a "closely guarded secret" but includes 'artificial fat' (pine kernel oil), oats and rusk as well as seven different herbs and two spices.
"I became a bit obsessed with black pudding," Andy, who is originally from Stacksteads, said.
"I started coming up with all kinds of weird and wonderful recipes. We did one with chilli and chocolate but now we just make it with chilli which is really popular."
Andy's 'obsession' as he calls it has also led to him being knighted as a member of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Goute Boudin - or the Black Pudding Fraternity in English. To date he has won more than 200 competitions and proudly displays his certificates and trophies at his factory in Waterside Road.
Although he is now semi-retired Andy's two children; Jess and Brett, work in the family business which is responsible for making 18 tonnes of black, white and vegetarian pudding every week.
Andy's love of black pudding isn't just a show - he still eats it and cooks with it regularly at home, and his obsession has clearly become lifelong.
"There's so much you can do with it and to think we've become one of the biggest manufacturers in Britain is pretty impressive," he added.
