A West Cumbrian family business is bidding to become a household name.

Taste of the Lakes, one of the county's top wholesale suppliers, is hoping that its products can also become a favourite with shoppers.

The firm produces a range of smoked meat and fish from its headquarters in Solway Food Park, Maryport.

These are sold on to hotels and restaurants through whoesalers.

Rob Hodgson, the firm's owner, said: "We deal mainly through wholesalers and they are selling our stuff with their name. We are now wanting to establish ourseleves and get Taste of the Lakes established as a brand."

Those ambitions have been boosted by Taste of the Lakes taking the top prize at Muncaster Castle's Sausage Festival this month.

Mr Hodgson hopes this recognition will be as a springboard to help establish the brand with consumers.

His family used to own Brookside Products, also in Maryport, but sold the plant to a Scottish company.

Taste of the Lakes was set up seven years ago.

It acquired Penrith's Old Smokehouse, moving the equipment to Maryport.

The business then set about creating a range of products, which include dry-cured bacon and Cumberland sausage plus smoked salmon, chicken and duck.

Mr Hodgson said: "I am biased but it is some of the best bacon you have ever tasted."

The company now employs 40 people and operates shops in Maryport, Workington, Cleator Moor and Carlisle under the First Choice Meats brand.

It also sells through Westmorland Farm Shops.

And Taste of the Lakes has taken on challenges from suppliers, such as developing a Cumbrian pastrami for a customer in London.

"I think they were getting some from America but their supply dried up," Mr Hodgson said.

He added: "The new model is to push hard into retail. Food services is something we have been strong in for a while.

"Cumberland sausage is one where we are pushing hard because it is something known all over the country."

The event at Muncaster saw 74 sausage eaters take part in a blind taste test before they Taste of the Lakes' sausage was declared the winner.

Mr Hodgson said: “It was fantastic, absolutely brilliant.

“Cumberland sausage is, for any Cumbrian butcher, a main product. To win this category against strong competition from some of the best sausage makers in the county is quite something.

"That award will help us because we can now use it to say 'look at this Cumbrian product, it has been judged by a public taste test to be one of the best'."