Like many businesses, small-retail butchery has struggled over the years but a Dunedin butcher is learning new tricks in an effort to survive. Rebecca Fox talks to Ian Kennedy.
Ian Kennedy is passionate about good old-fashioned butchery.
Get him started talking about his silver award-winning smallgoods and the benefits of producing quality meats without artificial or unhealthy fillers and he is hard to stop.
A butcher by trade, Mr Kennedy left the industry for stints at meatworks and in the building trade before finding his way back.
In 2008, he took over Palmerston Butchery and set about digging out recipes from his early days and training in producing smallgoods the old-fashioned way.
The proof was in silver and bronze medals for his paua sausages and saveloys and, most recently, for his maple-dried bacon and streaky bacon in the 100% Bacon and Ham competition, he said.
''I really feel responsible for what I put into people's mouths. I do not use binding agents. I press my hams naturally the old-fashioned way. I'm very fussy about what I put in my sausages.''
However, he began to realise to succeed and survive, he needed to make changes.
The butchery in Palmerston was in an old building, built in 1868 and too small for today's practices so he sought out new premises.
''Retail is a struggle.''
He found them in the old kitchens at the former Cherry Farm on SH1 and his business now shares a site with local producer Evandsdale Cheese.
The kitchens have plenty of room for his smoker, a new drying room and a retail shop.
There is also space for his latest endeavour, an online shop.
His website has also gone live under the business's new name, Matanaka Meats, named after the nearby Karitane area where he and his partner, Rochelle Henderson, and their four children live.
''It seems to be the way of the future.''
With help from one of his young staff members, Ashley Knox, the business also has a Facebook page.
He is hoping a new online presence will boost business and feed the market for quality meats.
They are working hard on finding suppliers to ensure their meat arrives at customers' doors without deteriorating, including searching for packaging that will retain meat under heavy chilling for 27 hours.
The business supplements its income with home-kill services for hunters and farmers, a growing and changing industry itself, he said.
''Farmers' wives'' were more in touch with the animals raised and were keen to use gourmet cuts and meats in different ways.
''We have a good bunch of loyal customers.''
So instead of 30kg of meat going out in a plastic bag as in the past, he said, there were French cuts, chorizo and specialty-flavoured meat patties to name just a few going out in vacuum-packed servings designed to retain quality in the freezer.
''It's a lot more sophisticated.''
