Booming butcher trade here to stay

The best news for the cattle industry is that across all cuts, and including pork and chicken, beef is delivering the highest value back to the butcher.

The latest figures from Nielsen Homescan for quarter three, which is the period post panic-buying, shows butcher shop sales of fresh meat grew by 22.5 per cent for the 12 weeks to September, well above the major supermarkets which grew by 12.5pc.

It's red meat the home chefs are chasing: beef retail sales, across all channels, grew by 15.4pc and lamb 17pc, against chicken at 8.9pc.

It has been a phenomenal turnaround for the humble butcher, a channel that had been in decline for a number of years as supermarkets exerted dominance.

But those behind the blocks in butcheries say the lessons learnt from COVID-19 will not be quickly forgotten.

Gippsland butcher Andrew Parniak, who owns Butchers on George in Moe, was forced to close his shop during the first lockdown but spent the time wisely developing an online store to sell his meat direct to the consumer's door via his own delivery service.

At the height of the pandemic, 100 per cent of his trade was derived from online sales and he now estimates about 40pc of his business comes from online orders.

"It went from your normal trade to just absolute nuts overnight," Mr Parniak said.

"The major supermarkets couldn't keep up and shelves were stripped bare so people turned to their traditional, smaller butchers and we stepped up and made sure we had as much as we could offer."

Mr Parniak said his grassroots relationships with local farmers meant he could source the likes of beef more promptly than the larger supermarket chains less than a kilometre away.

"There was a couple of times I rang up farmers I knew and I just bought straight off the farm," he said.

Most of his meat is sourced through the Pakenham prime market where it is sent to Radford's Warragul for processing before hitting the shop counter.

"The most popular meat during the pandemic believe it or not was mince because everyone wanted to stock up their freezers," Mr Parniak said.

"We found the likes of mince and chicken breast were very sought after because people could turn them into 20 different things: if you had a kilo of mince you could make spaghetti, tacos, lasange and sheppard's pie so when people were worried about a potential shortage, they felt relieved to have mince on hand."

Post the panic-buying phase, shoppers then turned to their traditional cuts of meat, particularly beef and chicken, he said.

According to Rabobank's latest Beef Quarterly report, independent butchers are among the biggest winners in 2020 due to the closed or reduced foodservice channels during the pandemic.

The report said butchers' share of the fresh meat market increased two percentage points for several reasons: no limit on purchases, the reduced people exposure with shopping at a smaller outlet and more home cooking.

"We have also seen butchers evolve into offering new services such as home delivery, supplying into foodservice and provision of meat for events, re-inventing packaging, selling pre-prepared meals and selling more branded product," Rabobank's Angus Gidley-Baird said.

"For many consumers, it was possibly more a revival of old ways rather than the opening of new doors but there will be opportunity now for butchers to capitilise longer term.

"The exposure to one-on-one conversations with independent butchers opened consumers' eyes to other cuts, the variety on offer and different experiences with beef. That will encourage them to stay but the onus will be on the butcher make the new custom stick."

Another butcher, Adam Stratton, said his four shops across Sydney, which trade under Tender Gourmet Butchery, had experienced a massive influx of new customers and a boost in sales to existing consumers.

He said the migration began when mince shortages started in supermarkets and limits were placed on purchases.

"People came to us firstly just to get what they needed but they quickly started saying 'this is way better'," he said.

What has attracted consumers, he said, includes the fact everything is made freshly on the premises, butchers have the expertise to advise on cuts and cooking methods, they are supporting local business and jobs and volumes can be customised.

"The broad range of cuts in butcher shops has also served the new ways," Mr Stratton said.

"When people went into lockdown they had the time to read cook books and became far more adventurous, having a crack at things they'd never tried before - beef cheeks and ox tails became popular, for example, and roasts are now massive.

"That has been terrific for us. The ideal scenario for a butcher is to buy a full carcase and be able to utilise it all."

Sales at one of Mr Stratton's stores is up 35pc - and holding each week.

Online deliveries, which he said 'exploded' when the pandemic hit, have also shown no signs of easing - "we are booked four days in advance at the maximum 45 deliveries a day."

He said he was "100 per cent confident" it would be the new normal, judging from customer feedback.

Both butchers reported sales of premium cuts among home cookers had ramped up, particularly as time went on and people looked to replicate restaurant experiences more at home.

Mr Stratton said that had meant as restaurants re-opened, home chefs were providing solid competition for those higher-end cuts, putting upward pressure on.

Scotch fillet prices, for example, have jumped by more than 50pc.

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