'MEAT Your Supply Chain'

Our new feature 'MEAT Your Supply Chain' gives you an insight into some of the people who make up your Scotch red meat supply chain. We'll be talking to a host of different businesses from across the supply chain to understand how they work and what makes them tick.

This week we have John Buckwell, a butcher and owner of Buckwells of Southsea. A valued member of the Scotch Butcher Club, John has been in the industry for 60 years!

Take a look at the interview below:

Q: When and where did you start your career?

A: I've been in the meat trade since 1960 - it's been my life. I started as a Saturday boy, then started full time when I left school. After a few months, I started to work for a company with 12 very busy shops in West London. At the age of 20, I was given my own shop to manage in Chiswick High Road. I then worked at a High Class shop as a shopman cutter and there I learned the top end quality side of the trade.

In 1975, I moved to the south coast with my family and became the manager for West Layton butchers in Portsmouth, and in 1978, I became a salesman for Towers & Co at Portsmouth Wholesale Meat Market where we sold over 100 tonnes of meat a week!

Q: What do you do now?

A: In 1987, I decided to branch out on my own and I bought our current shop from one of our butcher customers. Initially, I worked on my own with my wife, youngest daughter and a retired butcher helping me at weekends. We now have a remarkably busy shop with six staff.

Q: What do you love most about what you do?

A: I'm still enjoying working in the meat trade (and I'll have been in the industry for 60 years this Easter!). We have built our trade on quality and our customers appreciate that. We buy the best we can which includes wonderful Scotch Beef. My first experience of cutting Scotch Beef was all those years ago in the High Class shop, which got Buchan beef from Smithfield.

I love my job and it’s been good to me, I enjoy meeting and chatting with my customers and they appreciate the quality of the Scotch brand and its naturalness.

Visit Buckwells in person to pick up some high-quality Scotch Beef PGI, Scotch Lamb PGI or Specially Selected Pork if you’re in the Portsmouth area, or take a look at their site: https://www.buckwells.co.uk/

The Scotch Butchers Club are a group of likeminded butchers, who are committed to sourcing quality assured Scotch meat. Find your local butcher, or discover more about the benefits of joining as a member on the brand new site: https://www.scotchbutchers.com/