Butchers

Contents

1. Craft Butchers - Cutting it in the modern world
2. New breed, old connection
3. Changing tastes
4. Can't get the staff?

Craft Butchers - Cutting it in the modern world

A traditional trade that can thrive in a modern world - that's how independent butchers view their craft in the 21st century.

But for many years it was an industry in decline, suffering like many small retail enterprises from the flight to the supermarkets.

During the 1960s there were an estimated 33,000 independent butchers in the UK. This fell steadily, and by the mid 1990s fewer than a third remained, whittled away while the supermarkets devoted ever more floor space to meat, both fresh and processed.

For a time it seemed shoppers found it so convenient to pick up everything they needed in one stop that there would be no room left for independent retailers.

And just as supermarkets were really taking hold of consumer habits, meat sales took another serious knock when BSE was identified in British cattle in the mid-80s, and subsequently found to cause cases of CJD in humans.

But over the last few years, the fortunes of craft butchery appear to have turned again - partly as a long-term response to the BSE crisis and other health concerns.

After their steep decline, the number of retail butchers appears to have stabilised. There are now around 7,500 butchers across Britain, apparently buoyed by consumers' renewed interest in how their food is prepared and where it comes from.