With fans travelling worldwide and queuing for hours to meet Spud Brothers, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re an international boy band.
In reality, it’s hordes of hungry customers lining the streets of Preston in Lancashire and, more recently, London’s Soho, desperate to get a taste of the British dinnertime staple – a jacket potato.
So, why is the humble dish causing such a ruckus? It’s thanks to the social media sensations behind the idea – brothers Jacob, 28, and Harley Nelson, 21.
Given their northern charm, sell-out events, and appearances on television, the pair, who have more than three million followers on TikTok and over half a million on Instagram, do boast similarities to a boy band.
And with spuds selling out in the UK’s capital last week at a price point of £9 for a cheese and beans jacket potato, they’re rightfully cashing in on their hard work.
Jacob and Harley have worked alongside Steven Bartlett to discuss their rise to fame, hand-delivered spuds to the Jonas Brothers, and employed Ella Henderson for the day in a bid to raise money for Children in Need.
Behind their rise to fame is an emotional backstory, with the pair taking over the van from a family friend following the death aged just 43.
They want to keep his ‘legacy alive’ while ‘inspiring younger people using social media’.
Discussing their roots on Facebook, Jacob explained: ‘In 1955, there was a guy called Ernie Roads and he decided to sell hot potatoes and then he passed it over to his grandson Keith senior.’
They took over the business from a family friend after the loss of his son, and now the Spud Bros (pictured) have found international fame
Since they started posting, people have travelled from Australia, Turkey, Spain, Germany and Amsterdam to taste their jacket potatoes (pictured)
‘Keith senior then retired and passed it on to his son Keith junior. He became an absolute legend of Preston… unfortunately, back in 2020, Keith passed away.
‘Harley and Tony bought the business off him to keep the legacy going, so Tony and Harley had it for a few years. Poor old Tony needed to retire and that’s when I came in along with Harley.
‘We soon outgrew the old tram and needed to go to… a bigger tram. The idea was to inspire younger people using social media, but also keeping that legacy alive.
‘Within a week of being on social media, we went form 60,000 to having 250,000 followers, that had a major impact on our business and people were travelling worldwide just to try the greatest spuds on earth.’
In May, Spud Brothers revealed insight into their success, and they 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.
The Spud Bros served the Jonas Brothers in September ahead of their UK tour date (pictured from L to R: Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, Jacob, Nick Jonas, and Harley)
The brothers joined Steven Bartlett (pictured centre) to discuss how social media enabled their rise to fame
In November, the duo teamed up with singer Ella Henderson (pictured centre) to raise money for Children in Need
‘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 give people that customer interaction.’
Spud Brothers Jacob and Harley took over their TikTok account from their father, Anthony, 57, who managed to get a 60,000 followers.
Jacob quit his job as a sales manager to work at the company full time and now they have reached over three 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 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.
Pictured: Queues lined the streets of London’s Soho when the Spud Bros opened their first pop up in the UK’s capital
Jacob’s girlfriend Nina Dixon (pictured) said she hit the ‘jackpot’ when choosing him as a role model for their children
‘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 northwest 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.
He added: ‘We’ve got one video that’s got 20million views. It’s just of me doing a pov, doing what we do, serving the spuds.’
The business was founded in 1955 by Ernie Rhodes, who then passed it on to his nephew Keith Roberts in 1978.
Exactly 30 years later, Keith passed the company to his son, who was also called Keith, but he passed away in 2020.
Harley and Jacob’s father took over the business, and the two brothers have served jacket potatoes five days a week ever since.
Now, customers flock to pick up baked potato meals with a variety of toppings, which sell for around £5 a pop in Preston.
Jacob added: ‘I actually worked with Keith, and it was my first ever Saturday job 14 years ago.
‘It was always a good business that did well and had a good reputation in Preston. Nobody in his family wanted to take it on so he spoke to my dad about it because they were good friends, and I used to work there.
‘We just decided to buy the business and made a go of it to keep the legacy going. It’s just insane.’
They’ve become such a household name that they provided ‘pre-event scran’ for the Jonas Brothers during their UK tour date in September. Talking of the event, the pair wrote to Instagram: ‘When the Jo bros meet the spud bros, unreal performance from these lads’.
Elsewhere, they’ve used their platform to raise money, meeting Paddy McGuiness and welcoming X Factor alum Ella Henderson into the spud tram to raise money for Children in Need.
‘Thank you to everyone who came and supported children in need. We managed to raise over £2000 from our small tram which is just the start,’ they wrote after the event.
And with their long-term goal of inspiring young people using social media, in November the brothers partnered with Adobe to share how their story with Steven Bartlett, saying: ‘Yesterday was surreal, man.
Jacob, 28, and Harley Nelson, 21, aka The Spud Brothers have become a global sensation for their baked potatoes
The brothers started appealing to students on TikTok and were shocked at how many followers they got
‘This year has been anything but easy, filled with late nights, early mornings, crazy highs, and moments of self-doubt. But days like today are proof that when you show up consistently, chase your passion relentlessly, and believe in your vision, magic happens.
‘A year can change everything. Here’s to more growth, more risks, and more dreams becoming reality.’
It was one of those dream come true moments last week for the brothers, when they opened their first pop up location in London’s Soho.
TikTok influencer Angelina, who goes by @angelina.pj on TikTok, queued for an hour and a half for a spud, but for her, it was a small price to pay for the ‘nine out of ten’ jacket potato.
Elsewhere, @jayverified on TikTok woke up at six in the morning to try Spud Brothers in London, and when he arrived, he dubbed the queue ‘humongous’.
Again, the wait time was worth it for Jay, who said the taste was ‘astronomical’ and he could ‘clearly see what the hype was about’.
At the same time, some fans expressed disappointment with the price surge in London. In Preston, a spud with two toppings cost approximately £5.
In the UK’s capital, 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.
Regardless, the pop up was a clear hit, with the location selling out of spuds. They wrote to Instagram: ‘Out of spuds! Thank you to everyone who’s visited Spud Bros Express over the last few days.
‘We didn’t anticipate the huge demand and we’re officially out of spuds and waiting for a bigger order to arrive from Preston.’
In another moment that caused a storm online, Jacob’s partner Nina Dixon surprised the Spud Brother at the event, causing him to well up.
She previously admitted that, at first, she wasn’t keen on Jacob joining the business and worried it would impact the time he could spend with their children during the weekends.
‘What people don’t see on camera is the blood, sweat, lots of arguments and tears that go on behind the scenes’, she wrote on Instagram.
Nina added: ‘When the queues became so long it has taken an army of people to support Jacob and Harley, it would have been impossible to do everything alone.
‘We have all had to make sacrifices and pull together to allow them the opportunity to gain experience.’
She added: ‘From a girlfriend, partner, and biggest cheerleader I just want to say how proud I am of Jacob, when it came to choose a role model for my children, I really did hit the jackpot.’
