Influencer takes on Spudman and SpudBros for charging ‘extortionate prices’ that mean customers ‘need to remortgage their homes’

An influencer has blasted Spudman and SpudBros for charging extortionate prices for their loaded baked potatoes. 

Jono Yates, from Manchester, who runs the foodie Instagram page @OnlyScrans, which has nearly 900,000 followers, took to social media to showcase how easy it is to make a delicious loaded baked potato at home. 

The content creator said you can make exactly what the spud sellers are offering for ‘a fraction of the price’ and you don’t have to queue for ‘over three hours’ to get one. 

Customers queue for hours to get their jackets from Jacob, 28, and Harley Nelson, 21, who are known as the Spud Brothers, tram in Preston Flag Market and their new spot in central London. 

After going viral on TikTok, people have travelled from Australia, Turkey, Spain, Germany and Amsterdam to Lancashire to try their potatoes.

Meanwhile rival vendor, Ben Newman, 39, known as ‘Spud Man’, became a household name on TikTok, with tens of millions of hits online people clue for hours to try one of his mouth watering potatoes. 

‘Spud Man’ charged a hefty £7.50 for a plain jacket potato and prices go up to £12 for a loaded one with pulled pork or chicken, meanwhile SpudBros also charge up to £12.

Jono showcased just how easy it is to make the delicious meal at home for under £6 in his step by step tutorial.

He said: ‘You don’t have to pay over a tenner and queue for 3 hours for a jacket potato. Despite what TikTok might tell you.’

He added: ‘You can make one of these spud van classics at home for a fraction of the price, and I’m about to show you how.

‘Please note that this is not a dig at the lads who own these vans. Anyone who can convince the British public that a jacket potato is worth that amount of money is a f****** business guru, so fair play.’

In the video, which racked up more than 6,000 views, Jono made a mouthwatering loaded spud with beans, cheese, mayo, chipotle paste and crispy onions.

Describing the method, he said: ‘Wash and poke holes in your spud before lathering it in olive oil and salt. Wrap it up in tin foil and then whack it in the air fryer for 55 minutes at 180 degrees.

‘While that cooks we’re going to make our tram sauce. This is literally just mayo and chipotle paste. Mix it up and set it aside.

‘Unwrap the potato and add more oil and salt. Stick it back in at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

‘While that’s cooking, throw some butter in a bowl and grate half a clove of garlic with a pinch of fresh parsley. Microwave until it melts.’

The creator next showcased how to assemble the spud and warned people not to add tuna if they are having beans. 

He said: ‘Open it up and give it a butter cream pie. Add your cheese and beans. DO NOT ADD TUNA. NOBODY EATS TUNA AND F****** BEANS.

‘Lash your sauce on and some crispy onions and Congratulations, you now have all the tools you need to become a millionaire.’

Many were impressed with the tasty looking spud and rushed to the comments to leave their thoughts. 

One person said: ‘Maybe try the tuna. actually decent’ To which he replied: ‘Not a chance.’

Another said: ‘Micro 10 mins then airfry no cover for 12mins, perfect, fraction of the time.’

Someone else wrote: ‘That garlic butter was naughty!’ 

The Spudman and SpudBros success comes amid a new craze among Gen-Zers, seemingly fuelled by social media, for jacket potatoes. 

Jacob and Harely, whose username is @TheSpudBrothers, often have to turn customers away due to the high demand.

Jacob said: ‘We open at 11.30am and we always have around 30 people in the queue waiting for us to open.

‘Then it’s constant to 3pm so we have to turn people away because the jacket potatoes take around two hours to cook.

‘We hate doing it and disappointing people, but we have to do it.

‘We don’t even know how many potatoes we can serve in a day, which is bizarre, because it’s constantly busy from open to close.

‘We’ve had people come from Germany, Amsterdam, Turkey, Spain and Australia come to visit.

‘We love the support and we are so grateful for people trying our little potato van in Preston so we always try and make it special for them.

‘We try and serve food and also give people that customer interaction.’

Spud Brothers Jacob and Harley took over their TikTok account from their dad, Anthony, 57, who managed to get a whopping 60,000 followers.

But Jacob quit his job as a sales manager to work at the company full time and now they have almost reached a million followers.

The sibling duo decided to start posting on TikTok to market themselves to the thousands of students that live in Preston.

Instead of highly-edited videos, they decided to want to bring ‘a lot of northern humour’ to their content.

Jacob said: ‘There’s a lot of students in Preston and we just used to see them walking past the tram, going to McDonalds or Greggs.

‘My dad started the TikTok and struggled with it – even though he did get us up to around 60,000 followers.

‘But then me and Harley decided to take it up to the next level so we did a lot of research and decided we wanted to bring a lot of northern humour to it.

‘We wanted banter and for it to be more raw and natural, so a lot of the videos that we do is just raw footage.

‘It might be slightly edited but what you see, is what you get and a lot of people in the north west get it.’

Jacob said they didn’t think they would have as many followers as they do now, but within months, they had hundreds of thousands of people following them.

However the TikTok sensations faced backlash for doubling their prices when they opened a pop up in London. 

Their success landed them in a shiny new pop up joint in London’s West End, but fans couldn’t believe the surge in prices.

Back in their humble tram in Preston Flag Market brothers Jacob and Harley have customers queuing hours for spuds.

It’s a buzz that they’re hoping to recreate in their new London pop up, but customers should expect to pay premium price, with a cheese and beans jacket potato costing £9.50.

However, in Preston, Spud Brothers confirmed on Facebook that a medium jacket with two toppings cost £5.

The brothers revealed on TikTok that in 2022 they charged £3.50 for a small jacket potato with cheese and beans, £4.50 for a medium, comprised of one and half potatoes plus the toppings, and £5 for a large of two potato’s and two toppings.

In London, a jacket potato with butter is £5, a TikTok by @itsjimmyofficial_ revealed. To add cheese, beans, or coleslaw, customers will have to pay £2 per topping, and for tuna, chicken curry or chilli con carne, it’s an added £4 per option.

The once low prices meant customers took to TikTok to tell each other to visit Spud Brothers over business competitor Spud man, who has faced backlash for charging up to £12 for a jacket potato, despite a plain jacket potato with butter costing him 46p to make.

Taking to TikTok in 2022, Spud Man explained his cost breakdown, saying: ‘These videos always spark a good conversation; we’re doing another product costing video.

‘How much does a plain potato with butter cost me to produce?’ He explained: ‘So, one and a half spuds, butter, and a tray.

‘Tray costs me 7p, butter costs me 12p, I put a double portion on when it’s a plain potato, and one and a half spuds in 27p.

‘So, a plain potato, which we run out at Tamworth at £2.50 anywhere up to £5 on festivals, costs us 46p to produce, that is not including my wages, the rent, the gas, the diesel to get there, and all those other costs that are incurred; that is just purely the product cost, 47p’

However, prices soon skyrocketed, and at Silverstone, Spudman revealed that he charged £7.50 for a plain potato, £8.50 to have the spud with one filling, and £9.50 for two fillings.

Cold drinks cost £3.90, water £3.30, and red bull was £4.50. There most expensive option was terriyaki chicken, costing £12.

‘Goes without saying, same quality, same fillings, same size, we do every day in Tamworth,’ he concluded.