Hull food giant Aunt Bessie's said demand for its famous Yorkshire puddings had gone "through the roof" in the run up to Christmas.
The business, which produces 900 million puddings at its factory in Freightliner Road in Hull every year, increases its staff base by almost a third from October, as it works hard to keep up with enormous product demand.
Aunt Bessie's is one of Hull's biggest and best-known food businesses, and was last year bought by Birdseye owner Nomad Foods in a deal worth over £200m.
David Barr, chief Yorkshire pudding guru at Aunt Bessie’s, said: “I’ve worked at the factory for over three decades and each year, demand for our Yorkshire puds goes through the roof during the festive season.
“From October onwards, Aunt Bessie’s use 25,000 litres of liquid egg a day and around 45 tonnes of flour, and employ 30 per cent more factory staff in the run up to the festivities to cope with the heightened demand.
“My rule of thumb is that if there is gravy on your plate then a Yorkshire pudding belongs to be there.”
In the run-up to Christmas alone, Aunt Bessie’s produces a staggering 110 million Yorkshire puddings.
Other numbers associated with Aunt Bessie’s are equally unbelievable. Every day, the business uses half a million eggs, 110 tonnes of batter, and 40 tonnes of flower.
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And every 1.2 seconds, a bag of Yorkshire puddings is made.
Christmas is the busiest period for Aunt Bessie’s, but as Mr Barr explained, the work starts much earlier than when decorations go up.
He said: “We have four pudding lines in the factory. During the summer we only run two, but from August we increase that to three. The last one fires up nearer winter.
“Around 250 people normally work at the company, but we do get some agency workers in to handle the busy period up to Christmas."
Walking around the Aunt Bessie’s factory, you quickly get a sense of the sheer volume of puddings that roll along the production line.
Batter rolls into ovens which are more than 50m long, and out of the other end come perfectly formed Yorkshires.
The odd one which doesn’t quite make the cut is discarded, with all food waste becoming animal feed.
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A state-of-the-art machine then sorts the puddings by weight, and drops them into bags ready to be sealed, boxed and sent off to the shops.
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Business Live's Hull & East Yorkshire journalist is Phil Winter, also the business editor at the Hull Daily Mail and Hull Live.
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