Franchiser and store owner Michael Morton, of Auckland, said the business had no option but to close as it could not find another retail site to suit its business in the area.
The landlord of the store at the corner of Andersons Bay Rd and Orari St is car dealer and Dunedin City councillor Andrew Simms.
Mr Morton said Mr Simms was extending his car yard and the butchery’s lease was ending.
Mad Butcher had been looking for somewhere else to go, but nothing had been available.
"We’ve been looking for close to a year to try and find something else in South Dunedin. It’s really hard because most stuff in South Dunedin is what they call light industrial," he said.
"You can have a little showroom and warehousing or production area, but you can’t really, not really, have retail. So you try and go for all of the business, get resource consent and things like that and we’ve found landlords just aren’t interested in doing it."
He said the zoning was wrong in South Dunedin for a shop like the Mad Butcher, but he wanted to stay in the area.
The store, which was the most southern in the country, had been in Dunedin for nearly 15 years and it had been going well.
Of the 15 staff, two of the butchers have been offered work elsewhere while the rest of the staff would finish up.
He has no issue with what Mr Simms had done.
"It’s business. He’s been a good landlord in that place over that time but, you know, it’s his building, it’s his project, he’ll do what he wants to do with it."
Mr Morton said the shop was popular, with people coming from all over Dunedin and further afield to buy in bulk.
The shop would close on February 27, he said.
