MEMBERS UPDATE – 13TH OCTOBER 2023

Members Regional Meetings- Book your place today!

Date Venue
Monday 23rd October Carfraemill Hotel, Carfraemill, Scottish Borders
Tuesday 24th October Garfield House Hotel, Stepps
Wednesday 25th October Laichmoray Hotel, Elgin
Thursday 26th October Dewars Centre, Perth

We will have presentations from the following corporate members:-

Commencing 7.15pm and concluding at 9pm.

Please contact the office to indicate numbers to attend either call 01738 637472 or email [email protected].

EXTRA MILE AWARD 2023

Encourage your customers to nominate your staff members!
Scottish Craft Butchers and The Scotch Butchers Club are delighted to announce that nominations for the annual training awards are now open!

It is definitely worth encouraging your customers to submit a nomination form to recognise the “Extra Mile” that a member of your staff has gone!.

The benefits of winning a Craft Butcher Training award can last a lifetime.

Entries to be submitted by the 27th of October 2023.

Your customer could win a £100 voucher to spend in your local butcher's shop.

The presentation of the awards will take place after business at the AGM of the Scottish Craft Butchers on Wednesday 22nd November 2023 in Dundee.

The “Extra Mile Award” has a cash prize for the winner and a shop voucher for the customer who makes the best nomination.

Last year's winner was Mark Boyd from Bryan Beveridge Butchers in Dunfermline. Mark signed himself up to British Sign Language to enhance his customer service within his workplace.

Since Mark achieved his qualification and indeed through his learning leading up to his achievement, he has customers with hearing loss/deaf customers regularly visit the Butchers shop and specifically look for him on entering the premises, knowing he will make himself available to spend time with them, this number is increasing as it becomes known through the Deaf Community.

Well done Mark a very worthy Extra Mile Winner.

Send out the following link to your customers or copy and paste it on your social media.

Online Entry Form Submit your entry online: CLICK HERE

Join in “Porktober”

Well done everyone!

It is great to see so many members join in the “Porktober” celebration this year.
Keep posting your social media promotions, use the hashtags

#Porktober
#Porkonyourfork

Tag in @ScottishCraftButcher and we will try to share as many of your posts as we can on our social media!

Local butchers' “Porktober” drive to celebrate mainstay meat and support Scotland's pig producers

Scotland's independent local butchers are going to be hamming it up this month as they celebrate one of their mainstay meats throughout “Porktober”.
The “Porktober” initiative was launched last year to support Scotland's struggling pig producers and the success of the focussed campaign has seen it expanded for 2023.
Launched by Scottish Craft Butchers in 2022, “Porktober” has now been embraced by the National Craft Butchers and backed by QMS (Quality Meat Scotland).
Throughout the month of October, Scottish Craft Butchers (SCB) from Shetland to the Borders will be promoting the nutritional and economical value of pork in a “buy Scottish” drive in support of local pig producers.
Following last year's success, SCB hopes a second targeted campaign will provide another valued shot in the arm for the industry.

We also have bunting available to help decorate your shop! (See above and below)
Available in 10 metre sections @ £35 including VAT and postage.
Contact the office to order.

Taking Stock – the Scottish Venison Summit 2023

Supported by the Association of Deer Management Groups (ADMG)

10.00 – 16.30hrs, Monday 20 November 2023,
At Birnam Arts and Conference Centre, Birnam, Perthshire

This is the Scottish Venison event of the year – if you are involved in Scottish Venison, if
you're a producer or you process venison, stock it, sell it or serve it then this event is
important to you.

Or if you're interested and want to find out more.

Scottish Venison, the body that represents the 'brand', its production and processing – wild.and farmed, public and private sector, upland and lowland, will be hosting representatives from right across the Scottish venison industry for one day at Birnam, Perthshire.

We will be telling those who attend about Scottish venison's attributes and ambitions, its
direction and recent developments, its importance as a sustainable food, its role in
supporting delivery of the Scottish Government's climate change and biodiversity targets,
and its place as an asset in Scotland's rich, natural larder.

We have drawn together a wide-ranging programme including the launch of a refreshed
Scottish Venison strategy, the Government funded JF Consulting report on capacity and
infrastructure, and the latest assessment from SAC Consulting on greenhouse gas
emissions from the wild deer/venison processing sector. Afternoon sessions will cover
challenges and opportunities facing the processors, new initiatives, serving the 'third sector'
and a call for everyone to get involved and spread the word.

The event is free. A soup and sandwich lunch is included.

You can register to attend now by contacting [email protected] and your place will
be reserved. You will then be notified when the programme for the day is published later in
October.

Scottish Venison acknowledges the generous support of the Association of Deer
Management Groups (ADMG) in the staging of this event.

Scotch Pie Awards Now Open

The World Championship Scotch Pie Awards are back for 2023/24!
The competition will be open for entries from 28th September 2023 until 31st October 2023.
The competition is open to all food registered businesses.

Enter here
https://worldchampionshipscotchpieawards.org/competition.php

Steak Pie & Speciality Meat Pie Awards 2023

The Product Evaluation held at Forth Valley College, Stirling on Friday 15th September 2023 attracted a great number of entries from members the length and breadth of the country. 193 entries were received in total, 107 Speciality Meat Pies and 86 Traditional Steak Pies.

The summary of the awards is;

Diamond Gold Silver
Speciality Meat Pies 1 30 48
Traditional Steak Pies 1 33 36
Total 2 64 84

The 5 regional champions will be mystery shopped in the next few weeks and those Steak Pies will be judged to decide who is the Champion for 2023.
All awards will be presented at the Scottish Craft Butchers Regional meetings (details above) commencing 7.15pm and concluding at 9pm.

AGM- Scottish Craft Butchers
Annual General Meeting and Craft Skills Scotland Training Awards

22 November 2023 – The Landmark Hotel, Dundee – 11.00am to 4.00pm

Gordon King: [email protected]     07917524313

Bruce McCall: [email protected]   07834490922

The Scottish Craft Butchers office in Perth is staffed every weekday.
We will be available to our members to answer any queries via email or by mobile phone
and will be available out of office hours for any members wanting to contact us.