PLUM JOB

As you pour brandy over your Christmas pudding on Wednesday and set it aflame, spare a thought for the factory workers who were responsible for creating your showpiece festive dessert.

- RICHARD ASHMORE

Matthew Walker Puddings make 97% of our Christmas puds, with the 220 workers sending out 17 million to almost every major retailer, who all have their own secret recipe.

The world's oldest Christmas pudding maker is celebrating its 125th anniversary, and it's full steam ahead.

At the factory in Heanor, Derbyshire, staff gauge their speed not in mph, but in pph - puddings per hour and in October and November they hit 20,000pph.

Purveyors of puds for everyone from and Harrods Waitrose to Tesco and ASDA they work to each retailer's own recipe, some taking 30 months to mature.

Every year, the factory uses the equivalent of 10 Olympic swimming pools of alcohol, 393,304lbs of vine fruit and 151,219lbs of nuts.

Chris Hynes, factory general manager, tells The Mirror: "When people ask what we do, I think they feel we are like Santa Claus and his elves, and that we are busy for one day, or one month of the year.