He wants his long-established pie manufacturing company to emerge from the shadows of just making own brand products for Morrisons and Asda and re-establish Pooles in its own right with a range of sweet and savoury pastries for the deep freeze.

Mr Whelan has ploughed £5m into new equipment and is expecting a doubling of his Pemberton bakery workforce as production escalates.

He said today that evidence is growing that people are returning to freezer goods in order to economise.

Mr Whelan said: "It was only in the news the other day: the amount of food people are wasting. As as result of this, frozen food is coming back in. There is less waste; you use what you want and put the rest back in the freezer.

"Pooles is also a very old and respected name and we have decided to push the brand with our own labels. They will include meat and potato, chicken and mushroom and beef and onion, then also apple, cherry and blackcurrant pies for dessert.

"We would like to start off on supermarket shelves in the north but eventually expand across the whole country. That, of course, takes a bit of time and depends on how they sell and our capacity."

Mr Whelan is aiming to double the business's turnover to £20m within two years and said that growth plans could more than double the existing 70-strong workforce at its 200,000sq ft plant in Pemberton.

He will back up the drive for supermarket sales with television adverts to promote the full range.

Extra freezer capacity has also been added to store the new stock in Pemberton and Mr Whelan says he will be able to make up to 25,000 pies and pastries an hour once the new machines are operational.

Whelan said pie making is one of his passions along with his beloved Wigan Athletic Football Club. He bought Pooles of Wigan for £500,000 in the late 1980s.

Mr Whelan, who sold his 29% stake in JJB to chief executive Chris Ronnie last summer for £190m, also revealed that he bought back £5m worth of shares earlier this year following a drop in their value.

He said: "When they came down to £1, I thought they were a bargain. I still think they are cheap now. They are still yielding seven to eight per cent and sport is not going to die. I only bought £5m as an investment. I have confidence in the company. They will come back.
"Chris Ronnie is coping well. They are weathering the storm, which is not easy."