Butchers

[micky 3,325]

3 minutes ago, DIDO.1 said:

I'm happy to receive opinions good and bad?

 

Just as it should be ,get proper advice do not pay much

attention to what is said on the net ..........we all think we are experts.

[dytkos 17,534]

42 minutes ago, DIDO.1 said:

30 pubs a month close cos they are shit pubs. Iv worked all round the country and stopped in hundreds of pubs......most had indifferent staff serving bog standard food. If any of the pubs had friendly staff and good food and beer then iv crossed the country to stop there again. We had 12 pubs in our village, 4 terrible ones shut.....6 bog standard ones struggling to hang on......2 good ones are packed, good real ale, cheap simple food and if you go in twice the bar maids know your name! 

Many pubs are tied to breweries so the more they sell the more the rent goes up....this leads to miserable landlords who just exist. I know quite a few people who work for big breweries and believe me they have no interest in long term successful pubs. They just want to take the next mugs life savings who come along to buy the lease.....if they can't find anyone they let the pub go to ruin and instantly get permission to develop the pub into houses. Closing pubs is nothing to do with supermarkets or smoking bans! 

But I digress.......in our county I have seen butchers increasing over a massive area in the last 8 years

Theres a lot more to running a pub than that mate  but on the butchery front, my mate was a butcher all his life, mostly on Accrington market, he took the plunge and bought his own shop, probably in a "not bad" location, he was ok for a few years but busted a gut doing it, eventually he sold up and has worked at a furniture factory for the last ten years, says its easier and more lucrative. This fella is a great butcher with lots of contacts but he said it got harder by the day.  Good luck but imo I'd look at something else.

 

Cheers, D.

 

Cheers, D.

[The one 8,396]

Think as said its all about location , unless you have a specialty  that will draw in the in the customers the big supermarkets will beat you on price every time  and even them if you see the amount of folk round the out of date meat  a lot of folk still cant afford that 

[ginger beard 4,652]

I think opening a butchers shop would be a massive gamble but becoming a retail butcher in a cutting plant or one attached to a slaugher house would be a option. 

We have one attached to us and there always busy with hobby farmers doing all aspects of the trade and I think once capable could demand about 17 quid per hour.but it takes ages to learn the shapes of the bones.there's  butchers and there's butchers.

Go for it and good luck.good butchers or people willing are in demand.nobody young these days dreams about becoming a butcher.and it's always fecking cold.

[DIDO.1 20,815]

A good few posts there with good points. Thanks ?

[blackmaggie 3,375]

Dido there's a couple of meat wholesaler's near you bowland foods and Preston meats Honeywell's    and greaves that supply most of the area maybe speak with them my mate set himself up from scratch and was doing alright but the premises weren't big enough Wilson's supply most of the sausage you sound like your in a good location and there's a good few butchers near you to 

[DIDO.1 20,815]

11 minutes ago, blackmaggie said:

Dido there's a couple of meat wholesaler's near you bowland foods and Preston meats Honeywell's    and greaves that supply most of the area maybe speak with them my mate set himself up from scratch and was doing alright but the premises weren't big enough Wilson's supply most of the sausage you sound like your in a good location and there's a good few butchers near you to 

Cheers pal. 

Iv got an opportunity to go and spend some time with a good butcher now......so I will have a play at it for a while. 

My sticking point is always going to be finding a premises that tick all the boxes. But I'm looking forward to a few years just learning about butchery with the aim of just enjoying it as a hobby......then who knows ?

[neil cooney 10,415]

The shop where I done my apprenticeship (and butchering is a trade with a 4 year apprenticeship) in the late 80s was doing 14 cattle, 40 lambs and 15 pigs a week. Now it's doing 2 cattle a week. A sign of the times I suppose. But there's no reason a small shop wouldn't support a man and his family.

One of the big secrets would be the quality of your meat. There's a huge difference between lower grade meat and high grade meat. Another secret would be to sell to suit your customers. There's no point in trying to just sell the more expensive cuts if your location is in a low class area. Like wise you wont sell to many cheap cuts in an upper class area. I ran a shop for 2 years in a working class area and the boss just did beef hind quarters because it was handier. Plenty of customers used to come in looking for the cheaper cuts in the fore quarter and left empty handed. He'd have made a lot more money if he'd done full cattle.

I'd also try and learn the trade 100%. A slip of the knife can turn a £10 per pound piece of steak into a £3.50 per pound bit of mince. It's all profit. Doing my time my boss would take a bone out of my bone bag, trim the lean I'd left on it off, stick it on the scales and press "mince". Maybe only 10 or 12 pence might come up but he threaten 'to take it out of my wages. It's all profit.

Another minus IMO is being wed to the shop. Saturday being your busiest day means you must be there. To employ someone to stand in for you means someone you can trust 100% as it's easy to have sticky fingers and hard to prove someones dipping as profit can change per beast as you buy the bone and fat but don't sell it and some beasts are fattier or heavier boned than other. It can also be very hard having to remember that the customer is always right, even when you want to throw your steak knife at them because they reckon the chop they got of you last week was too tough.

Good luck with whatever you choose but if you do go for it IMO you've no chance unless you're doing top grade produce. It's the only way you'll compete against the crap sold in the supermarkets.

[neil cooney 10,415]

Oh, and it's easy to say you'll make a fortune as Christmas. Every butcher has nightmares coming up to Christmas. It's a horrible time of the year for them.

[DIDO.1 20,815]

? thanks 

[ginger beard 4,652]

Most shop now a days make most of there money butchering hobby farmers animals for the hobby farmers to have it straight back rather than what goes over the counter.

[Pirate 9000 675]

My brother Works in a butchers and they make a fortune going around local village's selling good quality meat out of the van,no super market can match the quality of a good small butchers, because you can hang meat for longer and find good farms to supply you.

[Qbgrey 3,968]

With rents bieng so high its tricky Times,locations the key too.a mate had a small butchers with small bakery,bacon rolls,cakes etc.he would buy in good quality pastries and bake on site in a smallish oven,he done ok but sold up to a new fella.i would get a nice van proffesionally sign written.travel about.cheap set up.

[abarrett 461]

I did the opposite I worked in butchers shops for 15 years then left and started pest control 

butchers shops are 6 days a week long hours and loads of paperwork to keep on top of

eho inspections weights and measures trading standards coshh temperature control sheets

delivery temperature sheets traceability with everything you touch 

that’s without the raw- cooked - frozen - selling and handling nightmares 

then there’s the profits and loss if you don’t sell a cut of meat it only moves down the chain eventually ending frozen

or minced or in the pet food bag 

not that I’m trying to put you off but it’s a nightmare I do a bit part time for mates and turkeys for a farmer at Christmas 

thats it 

I’ve worked in and managed shops one bad week can take you 3 weeks to recover from a simple thing like a fridge going down 

in the summer from over work to snow in the winter keeping people in it all costs 

just my opinion ?