Whilst the percentage of butcher shops within our current customer base is realtively small, they are a growing area within our customer portfolio, and if you add to that farm shops, whose main focus is meat, then they are a significant percentage of our revenue.  Many butchers have realised that stocking products other than meat to increase basket spend is essential, and may even make the difference between profit and loss.

 

We asked Mark Bradbury of Bradbury’s of Ravenshead more about this and why he chose to use Cotswold Fayre as a premium food wholesaler to stock up with other butcher shop products.  Mark told us:  “It is better to offer a wider variety of produce than just rely on one main line of produce, and we have been stocking complimentary butcher shop products for more than 15 years.” 

 

When asking about which type of products he sold, Mark told us: “We don’t just stock products associated with meat, but also stock jams, breads, cereals and drinks etc.  We have found that pick-up lines and biscuits sell particularly well – not quite what I would have expected when opening the shop!”

 

“We use Cotswold Fayre as one of our key suppliers because I feel that is important to continue to change with the latest trends and I am always on the look out for the most recent and newest products to market.  Cotswold Fayre, as a meat trade supplier, makes my job a lot easier and they are brilliant at finding the newest on trend products and highlighting them to me, ensuring that as a meat trader I always have a great range of other speciality food products in-store.”

 

Another of our longest-standing butcher shops is the Queen’s butcher, Lidgate’s.  As well as their shop in Holland Park, Lidgate’s also have a farm-based butcher/farm shop in Surrey.  Derek Crimmins told us that “while the focus of our shop is the butchers, we are aware that not all customers visit with the intention of buying meat , so we try to stock lots of interesting fresh products to tempt all customers.”

 

“Our customers are buying top quality meat and they want accompaniments that are of equal quality. We also have an amazing deli counter that draws customers and we stock a variety of other products to tempt all shoppers. Our best sellers are sauces to accompany our butchery products, snacks and crisps, and anything that will go with the lovely cheeses from our deli counter.”

In asking Derek why he chose to use Cotswold Fayre as his premium food wholesaler, he said: “Ease of ordering is the Number 1 reason why we use Cotswold Fayre as meat accompaniment supplier. The ability to build an order online is important for us. The customer service we receive from Cotswold Fayre is always outstanding.  We are always looking for interesting new products to stock. Our customer base is discerning and curious to try new things, and Cotswold Fayre helps us do this.”

Feedback from customers like these encourage us as a butcher shop wholesaler selling premium food to butchers is definitely going to grow over the next few months and years.