R & J Chapman, Baillieston

Seven miles east of Glasgow city centre is the area known as Baillieston. The Baillieston parliamentary constituency for the Scottish Parliament has an electoral role just short of 46,000 and this provides a great customer base for Main Street butchers R & J Chapman.

The business was founded by Jimmy Struthers and subsequently run by his son Ian and now Ian's daughter, Lynne Struthers. When Lynne left school she started working as a travel agent and never ever thought that 18 years on that she would be becoming a partner in the family butchers. She confessed:-

“I never imagined myself here but now that I am here, I don't want to be anywhere else. It was a good opportunity for me. I came in two years ago and my dad and the guys showed me the ropes.”

Lynne is helped by a staff of seven some of whom have worked for Chapman's for a lengthy time – Kenny Craig for over thirty years.

“I found it exciting because I got to modernise and upgrade the shop. I introduced a lot of the slimming range, butchers boxes and breakfast packs that drew in new customers.

“Baillieston is an area that is changing and we are changing with it. There are a lot of new houses and as people move in they come and buy our Butchers Boxes.”

Customers can choose from a large range of the finest Scotch meat. All Chapman's beef, lamb and pork comes from wholesale supplier JF Finlay out of Shotts and because of the close proximity Finlay's provide a daily delivery service. Poultry is supplied by Dalziel in Bellshill and free range eggs from Corrie Mains. Corrie Mains is an award winning family business run by Jim and Anne Smillie, a newly established state of the art site near Mauchline.

Lynne and her dad planned a shop refurbishment in October 2016. Watco fitted new counters, new lighting made a huge difference and the customer flow was greatly improved. The result was a clean, organised and well planned layout.

“People can see right round the displays, customer reaction has been brilliant and they are buying more.”

Over the years, Chapman's has won many awards including '2005 Best Steak Pie in Scotland'. It was a great achievement and they are still making their steak pies with the same recipe today. Lynne continued:-

“We pride ourselves on our steak pies since winning the championship. My dad is still very traditional and wants a steak deck out. We have a bit of both though, modern products like strip fries and kitchen ready meals.”

Kitchen ready include such offers as Chicken Kiev, Lemon Pepper Chicken, Piri Piri Chicken, Stornoway Pepper melts, Steakburger with Stornoway and peppercorn sauce.

All the cooked meats are cooked on the premises – roast lamb, roast beef, honey glazed ham. A vast range of sausages include silver award winning Pork & Spring Onion Round, Pork Garlic and Herb Sausages and Mediterranean Pork Sausages. Pies extend to individual Steak n Gravy, Scotch Pies and Bridies that were all recognised in the 2017 Savoury Pastry Awards.

Selling and arranging holidays has been a great grounding and just as that industry has changed to adapt to online competition, Lynne has introduced a Facebook page and online sales from the Chapman's website. This has proved to be a great success and the formula of her dad's traditional values, chops and steaks cut with uniformity and displayed with regimentation and Lynne's new ideas have breathed new life into the shop. Lynne concluded:-

“The new counters allowed us to keep the traditional plates of gigot chops and sirloin steaks and give me new space to do kitchen ready meals.” With a smile she added the secret of the formula :- “We compromised and kept a bit of both.”

Attachments:

• R&J_CHAPMAN_MARCH_2017.pdf