A SOUTH African firefighter who started making dried beef snacks to help his ill daughter hopes his biltong will help buyers find their inner bull.

Glenn Crookes and his wife Terri launched The Biltong Man last year, and their high energy snacks are now being used by some of Europe’s top rugby clubs.

But Mr Crookes, who still works as a firefighter in Bishop Auckland while growing the company near his home in Wolsingham, County Durham, hopes The Biltong Man and its Respect the Beef branding will help customers feel like part of a bigger movement.

He said: “Biltong is about fuelling your passion for life, grabbing life by the horns.”

Mr Crookes started making biltong four years ago after his daughter Atlanta Sky, then aged 12, was diagnosed with anaemia and was in urgent need of more iron in her diet.

He then started to send it to friends in London before reaching a life-changing point.

The Biltong Man said: “I was making it for friends of friends and it was taking up all our time.

“I said to my wife either we stop altogether or we fully commit to it and try and make it into a proper business.”

Now the company, which is based in a small unit on Wolsingham Industrial Estate, is looking to double its capacity which would also see the creation of new jobs.

And The Biltong Man has also received investment from former Storey Carpets chief executive Simon Heptinstall.

The unit currently has capacity for 700kg of beef, all sourced from within a one hour drive of Wolsingham, with 2.2kg of raw meat needed to make 1kg of biltong.

The silverside beef is spiced and cut before being dried over many hours, with the resulting snack being high in protein, amino acids and creatine.

Mr Crookes said it has become the best-selling snack in Newcastle’s Head of Steam pub and he is currently supplying it to rugby clubs including Toulon, Munster, the London Scottish and Cornish Pirates, all of whom have bought into the bull ethos.

Later this year he and his daughter Atlanta Sky will perform a parachute leap to raise money for charities under the biltong banner.

For more information, search for The Biltong Man on Facebook.