‘South Africans are fiercely protective of their sausages’ – The pro rugby players behind Hellbent boerewors
Missing the tastes of home proved meaty for former Ulster Rugby duo Louis Ludik and Schalk van der Merwe, after a trial cooking of the signature sausage of South Africa turned into a €400,000 business deal
Boerewors — a type of South African sausage, which are made from Irish beef, from Hellbent
Former rugby players and owners of Hellbent Irish Boerewors Louis Ludik, left, and Schalk Van der Merwe
Hellbent founders Louis Ludik, left, and Schalk van der Merwe at a display of their products
Former Ulster Rugby player Louis Ludik is tackled by Jamie Ritchie of Edinburgh during a Guinness PRO14 match in 2018. Picture by Paul Devlin/Sportsfile
Boerewors, a type of sausage, from Hellbent, which are traditionally cooked on an open fire in South Africa
It was at a barbecue in September 2018 that South African rugby players Louis Ludik and Schalk van der Merwe first thought they might be on to something. As guests gathered around the fire, the pair got ready to grill some freshly made boerewors, the iconic coiled spiced sausage from home.
The two were playing rugby professionally for Ulster Rugby at the time and had taken the day off to hang out with friends, neighbours and teammates for Van der Merwe’s son’s fourth birthday. Both missed the traditions of home, such as braai — as barbecues are known in that part of the world — and the signature boerewors that feature heavily in outdoor cook-ups back in South Africa.
Made from ground beef and spiced with nutmeg and clove, boerewors are widely eaten in South Africa but were impossible to find in Northern Ireland. So just for a novelty, Van der Merwe dug out a recipe from home and went to his local butcher to get a batch made up. He specified the exact cuts of beef to be used, the ratio of spices to meat and the right casing to make up the authentic delicacy. The result surprised everyone.
Boerewors are traditionally made with top-quality beef, not odds and ends, and when the South African recipe was combined with the best Irish beef, something new was born. Guests at the braai were blown away and eventually someone said: “You know, you guys should totally sell these.”
The remark was laughed off until the first of the pair’s teammates started asking for 10kg of sausages each week. Suddenly, what started out as a casual remark looked like it could turn into something more and today the pair have a company called Hellbent. Recently, it landed a deal to have its products stocked in Lidl throughout the Republic of Ireland.
Boerewors, a type of sausage, from Hellbent, which are traditionally cooked on an open fire in South Africa
“I don’t know if it was just that I hadn’t had them in so long, or whether the ingredients made the difference but they genuinely were the best boerewors I’d ever tasted that day and people loved them,” says Ludik. “At the time, we were both looking for a post-retirement career and this was something we were both passionate about.
“When the suggestion was made that we make them, we just laughed about it. But then we started thinking. Schalk grew up on a farm and his family owned butcheries so he knew that end of things well, and we both knew that it’s very hard to get authentic flavours of South Africa outside the country. We’ve travelled the world and noticed this independently from each other.”
Boerewors are different to the traditional butcher’s pork sausages usually eaten in Ireland. To start with, they’re made solely with beef and spices — there is no added rusk or gluten — and while some South African recipes combine meats such as pork and lamb, purists prefer beef only. The result is a coil of sausage that’s extremely high in protein, something that particularly appealed to the pair’s rugby-playing teammates.
“As a pro rugby player, you’re constantly watching your diet and you tend to eat a lot of protein. A lot of people watch their carbs and try to eat more protein and vegetables, for example. But after a while, even steak and chicken can get a bit boring. So people are on the lookout for ways to vary this and these are something different that fits the bill. The guys loved them and our first orders started from them and grew from there.
Former rugby players and owners of Hellbent Irish Boerewors Louis Ludik, left, and Schalk Van der Merwe
“In South Africa, there are many recipes for boerewors and it’s a staple food, a big part of the diet. People eat it at barbecues of course, and it’s best grilled over wood coals, but it’s also delicious fried up in a pan for breakfast and cooked in the oven in the evenings, and served with mashed potato.” Ludik announced his retirement from professional rugby in May 2021, and like a lot of professional athletes, he had to find a way to reinvent himself as he aged out of playing his chosen sport. “It’s really hard because you go from a career where you are fully immersed in something you love and every day is about that. You have a high level of job satisfaction and you dedicate yourself to it and strive to always operate at the top level — and then, one day, it stops.
“It’s very difficult to find something to replace that, which can occupy you in quite the same way. It’s a constant topic of conversation for pro rugby players — ‘what are you going to do afterwards?’ — and I think Schalk and I are really lucky. Hellbent is something special for us because it really is a passion business — we really love South Africa and want to be able to bring the best of our culture to the world.”
But business is business, and persuading people that you have a product worth buying isn’t easy. After their initial start, Ludik and Van der Merwe had to pound the pavements taking their boerewors to food fairs and markets around Northern Ireland, giving away samples and getting the word out.
“The funniest part of this is what you learn from the kids you meet. If you give an adult a sample of a sausage, they’ll politely say ‘that’s nice’, even if they don’t like it. But kids have no filter and don’t lie. It’s very funny. Luckily, lots of kids love our sausage,” laughs Ludik.The pair work with a third party that carries out production while they handle all the logistics involved in getting their products out to market and on to shop shelves from their base in Holywood, Co Down.
“The biggest challenge at the beginning was not knowing anyone in that world. Building up a network was hard but Ulster Rugby was brilliant because they knew everyone in Northern Ireland and were able to help with introductions and so on. That’s how we came into contact with Invest NI and obviously, through them, to working with retailers. It doesn’t matter how much you believe in your products if you can’t get them in front of shoppers,” says Ludik.
Former Ulster Rugby player Louis Ludik is tackled by Jamie Ritchie of Edinburgh during a Guinness PRO14 match in 2018. Picture by Paul Devlin/Sportsfile
Former Ulster Rugby player Louis Ludik is tackled by Jamie Ritchie of Edinburgh during a Guinness PRO14 match in 2018. Picture by Paul Devlin/Sportsfile
This year, the pair signed a dealworth approximately €400,000 with Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland, which will see their products stocked in 215 Lidl stores across the island of Ireland and more than 800 in the UK. In particular, the product that will be most on display will be their chakalaka-flavoured boerewors.
Chakalaka is a type of South African spicy relish, usually made with onions, garlic, spices, tomatoes and beans. It can be eaten hot or cold and is a frequent accompaniment for grilled meat and boerewors in South Africa.
“Chakalaka has been around for a long time, and I don’t think anybody really knows where it comes from. There’s a sort of origin myth that it comes from around the gold mines of Johannesburg, where people from different nationalities came together,” says Ludik. “The idea is that Mozambican mineworkers coming off shift cooked tinned produce originally from England, tinned tomatoes and beans and so on, with onions and paprika from Portugal to make a spicy relish in a Portuguese style to accompany pap, which is what we call maize meal. It’s delicious.”
The same spices and flavours found in chakalaka have been ground up by Hellbent and added to their boerewors. Traditionally, these types of sausages, which are heavily influenced by sausages from Eastern Europe and Germany, are prepared and sold as coils, rather than as links. Years ago, this might have presented an issue, but thanks to the growing influence of Eastern European retailers here, Ludik thinks people are much more open to coils.
“The coil shape works particularly well for barbecuing and with a small one, you can actually pop it into a burger bun in place of a burger and it works perfectly. We sell them with a skewer through the coil to hold it together — which is a contentious decision really, sausage fans prefer their sausages unperforated — but it’s a concession to mass marketing unfortunately.”
Hellbent founders Louis Ludik, left, and Schalk van der Merwe at a display of their products
The thinking is that no sausage should be pricked before cooking as doing so lets the fat in the sausage escape while it cooks. “South Africans are fiercely protective of their sausages. They feel about them the same way Irish people feel about Guinness. So if we get it wrong, we hear about it on social media pretty quickly!”
