Hopes that winning gold will cement new markets for Christchurch business

A Christchurch butcher whose customer base was devastated in the February earthquake has been forced to look for new markets, and he’s doing it in Award-winning style.

Ashby’s Butchery is a wholesale butchery focusing on premium cuts and had a good share of the restaurant, hotel and café market. But after the February earthquake Ashby’s lost a huge chunk of its customer base and was relying on a retail presence at Rare Fare, Papanui.

Faced with having to lay off staff, Ashby’s co-owners Corey Winder and Peter Cotton knew they needed to develop another volume market fast while retaining their premium product status.
“Shipping meats to distant markets is uneconomic for us so we knew retail offered the best option to sell our products on a larger scale,” says Winder.

Supermarkets have their own butchers but do buy in small goods, so Winder and Cotton knew that’s where their opportunity was.

“We are known for our premium products and we wanted to keep that status, so we set about creating the best bacon and sausage products we could. We figured that if we produced a truly outstanding product then the market would open up for us,” says Winder.

In August this year Winder’s bacon was named best in New Zealand, taking out the Cabernet Foods Ltd 100% New Zealand Bacon of the Year Supreme Award for his Dry-Cured Middle Bacon. Then earlier this month Winder’s Italian Casalinga Pork sausage beat 470 other sausages to be named New Zealand’s Best Sausage in the Devro New Zealand Sausage Competition. Winder’s Casalinga Pork sausage also won the People’s Choice Award.

“We are delighted by our success and are hoping these Awards will open some supermarket doors for us and give us the shelf-space we need,” says Winder.

“After the year we’ve had these Awards are just the boost the team needs. We have been running on empty at times this year, but these Awards have filled our tanks with so much enthusiasm and hope for the future for our business and our staff.”

Ashby’s Butchery is now working with Recover Canterbury which is assisting with marketing the new product range.

Recover Canterbury business recovery coordinator Philip Anstey says Ashby’s Butchery is a great example of resiliency within the Christchurch business sector.

“Winder has a tremendous level of faith in his team and is hugely committed to his business and the Christchurch community. He has been forced to make changes to his business, but has done so strategically and successfully and has built a platform on which his business has potential to grow,” says Anstey.

Winder says he is confident their old clientele will return, but is realistic on the timeframes.

“We are confident Christchurch will rebuild and rebound but for the hospitality sector this will take some time, and we knew we couldn’t wait it out without significant cuts to the business. But the silver lining is it’s given us the kick-start we needed to develop these new premium products which we can now offer to the market,” says Winder.

Ashby’s new small goods products are available at Fresh Choice, Merivale, Growers Market and the Lyttleton Farmers Market. The full range of Ashby’s products is available at Rare Fare, Papanui.