A chuffed Gary Lethborg nearly fell over when his name was called at the awards ceremony in Victoria.

``It's a pretty big thing in the meat industry because all your leading meat men are there, nobody knows until the dinner, so when I won I got up I was so excited I nearly knocked the table over,'' he said.

``I was really happy to win because last year we had the (factory) fire so it's about time we had some good luck.

``In Australia, that's a pretty big thing because there are a lot of sausages made here.''

Mr Lethborg said wining the National Sausage King award in the pork category was a tough task.

``Apparently it's one of the hardest to win because a pork sausage is a pork sausage . . . it's just got to be good.''

With a bit of prodding from son Heath, Mr Lethborg admitted some secret herbs were involved.

``A shield, a trophy and bragging rights, which is worth a lot when you can say you've got the best pork sausage,'' he said.

The family business was started by Mr Lethborg's grandfather in 1911.

Before Mr Lethborg took over in 1972 his father and uncle ran the Invermay store.

The business moved to its Killafaddy address five years ago.