Leigh Park gets new shop selling 'best fresh biltong on the planet'

The cheeky slogan is the catchline of the new Biltong & Bangers shop, which opened in Greywell Shopping Centre in Leigh Park last month.

The business is the brainchild of butcher and chef Heath Dixon, who moved to the UK from South Africa in 2008.

He opened the first Biltong & Bangers shop in Southampton that same year.

Demand for biltong – a form of dried, cured meat – has proved so great that he opened a second shop in Bournemouth in 2016 before turning his attention to Leigh Park.

The business is now run by Heath, and his friends brothers Nigel and Gary Biffen.

Co-owner Nigel, who is in charge of the Leigh Park shop, said the response has been great.

He said: ‘The response has been absolutely amazing, both from South Africans and the locals. They have welcomed us and promoted us and we are very grateful.’

Heath, from Southampton, said: ‘Once people have tasted our biltong, they say there is no comparison.

‘Our customer base used to be either English people who had lived in South Africa or South African ex-pats but now it’s about 60 per cent English people who have never travelled to South Africa.

‘Once they taste it they love it.

‘It is more savoury and softer than jerky which can be hard and chewy. We are selling so much of it, that’s why we had to open another shop.

‘At the moment we are making about a tonne of biltong a month.

SEE ALSO: £10m redevelopment of much-loved holiday park Mill Rythe on Hayling Island begins

‘We have our own special technique, where we cut it, spice it and marinade it before hanging it out to cure for six to seven days.

‘We get customers travelling from all over for it.’

The shop makes fresh biltong, boerewors and drywors, which are types of sausages, and stokkies, a type of beef snapsticks and chillibites.

It stocks more than 100 types of premium South African wine, beer, cider and spirits, alongside hundreds of import grocery, confectionery, spices, soft drinks and more.

It also provides catering services for events and parties including hog roaster hire.

Heath hopes to branch out on to the Isle of Wight next year.

Its products are also available to order online go to biltongandbangers.com

The News has launched the #supportlocal campaign to keep independent traders in the spotlight at a time when they need help to get through a difficult year.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news online - as well as our new Puzzles section.