| 111 RETAIL Warkworth Butchery Virginia Wright Rob’s winning ways in Warkworth Rob Lees and his team took Warkworth Butchery right back to basics and rebuilt it from the ground up with a traditional approach. Proudly supporting Warkworth Butchery for all our processing needs. Contact Us 021 665 791 sales@thefarmgate.co.nz Farm Gate Produce Limited for all your free range pork. It was second time lucky for Rob Lees when he managed to buy the Warkworth Butchery in 2014. After 15 years working as a butcher in Christchurch he’d been up visiting his brother after the earthquakes when he saw in the local rag that it was for sale and started doing due diligence. The purchase didn’t work out that time but when he was back visiting again three years later he heard that the new owners were closing down. “The door was shut for three months by the time I took over. They’d made it organic only and put a lot of money into it with things like a smokehouse, and a walk-in chiller. So I paid about the same for it, with no trade but there was a lot of new gear,” says Rob. In the intervening three years Rob’s previous boss had opened a new butchery in Christchurch and left him running the old one, so he knew what was involved when he took on the premises that had been on the same corner for 117 years. “The town wanted it back as a staple part of the street, and the fact that it was shut for three months meant that instead of having to continue with business as usual, we could do things the way we wanted to from the start.” Rob and his team took it right back to basics and rebuilt it from the ground up with a traditional approach to what makes a good community butcher, and he knew exactly how to establish his credentials. “If you compare it to a new Thai takeaway you go in there and order the standard chicken green curry and beef massaman, and you judge the rest of it on those. For us it’s beef mince and sausages. “For two weeks it’s pretty much all I sold, that’s what everyone bought, and that’s how they decided whether this guy was going to be all right or not,” says Rob. From the start they’d planned to make smallgoods their calling card, knowing that was a good way to differentiate themselves from supermarkets. “Bacon, sausages, mince. Our mince is just mince, we get whatever meat we’re using and that’s it. “We don’t add water, and certainly don’t add preservatives although I don’t know if many people do that these days. Our all-day, everyday mince is probably better than a lot of people’s premium,” says Rob. With their motto of ‘good meat comes from a good home’ they pay attention to its provenance. It’s all farmed in New Zealand and they get their produce from places like Kaitaia-based Farmgate Produce, Akaroa Salmon, venison from Fair Game Fiordland, and, while they stock Tegel Freerange they always have Bostock Organic chickens on hand. Sausages fly out the door from the Warkworth Butchery. From their original five flavours they now pride themselves on always having 12 of the 36 flavours they currently make on display for their customers. Their sausages are the real thing: their Pork Toulouse has white wine, garlic, allspice and mixed herbs added, no pre-mixes used here. Not surprising then that they should be waiting to hear how they’ve gone in the National Sausage Awards 2022 in which they know they’ve got something but not yet what. In the meantime they won gold in three categories for their bacon in the New Zealand Bacon and Ham Awards 2022 before taking out the Supreme Award. “What happens is the winners of all nine categories get judged against each other and one gets named Supreme, and that was our Middle Bacon,” says Rob with satisfaction. The window of the Warkworth Butchery reflects its history and Rob’s proud to have kept as much of the original premises as he could while successfully adding to its legacy. “What we’ve been able to achieve is a credit to the community and the customers who continue to support us, and we’re proud to be serving them.” “What we’ve been able to achieve is a credit to the community and the customers who continue to support us, and we’re proud to be serving them.”
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