Five Northern Ireland family butchers are in the running for a major national award

Five Northern Ireland family butchers are in the running for a major national award that recognises their contribution to the local economy through the sale of premium quality meats and other artisan products to shoppers across the country.

Listed in the UK Butcher’s Shop of the Year Awards, an annual competition run by a leading industry journal, are: Carnbrooke Foods, a farm-based retailer with food halls in Lisburn and Dromore; Cunningham’s Butchers, Food Hall, Bistro and Steakhouse in Kilkeel; Millar Meats and Fine Foods in Irvinestown as well as both McAtamney’s Traditional Butchers stores in Limavady and Londonderry.

The Butcher’s Shop Awards seek to honour and celebrate quality, commitment and achievement in the UK butchery sector, pinpointing the best of the best in regions spanning the UK as well as rewarding innovation, quality presentations, online retail, and, the training of butchers in key skills.

The rewards recognise the importance of ensuring continuity within the sector of skills, knowledge and experience that will help to safeguard its long-term future.

Overall, the national competition aims to raise standards within this important retail sector; increase awareness among consumers of the importance of shopping local for the long-term benefit of rural communities and the wider Northern Ireland economy; and help to preserve the shops which have long been an essential feature of the high streets of cities, towns and villages throughout the UK. The latter is an important role given the decline of locally-owned and specialist stores over the past few decades.

Jason Hamilton, a farmer and food processor at Carnbrooke Food Hall, last year’s NI regional winner, recognises the role of the awards: “We were delighted to gain the NI regional award last year because it recognised our commitment to food retailing in terms of quality products and excellent customer services. Overall, the award helped to showcase the quality of our stores and the excellent services we provide.”

Jason has made a significant investment in modern food halls in Lisburn and Dromore. Both provide a vast range of premium meats from its own processing operations and other farm-based suppliers. The attractive food halls also offer opportunities to artisan food producers here.

Carnbrooke has a longstanding reputation for quality and tasty meats supplied to the hospitality sector here including top hotels and high-end restaurants; success which led Jason and wife Jacqueline to move the processing operation and to open a larger retail outlet in Lisburn. A similar food hall in Dromore followed. There’s also an in-store kitchen for the preparation of Carnbrooke branded ready meals. Another feature of the complex is a Himalayan salt chamber for dry-aged meat. The whole development represents an investment of almost £2m and employs over 50 people.

The provenance and quality of the food hall’s range of foods, he continues, are “proving extremely popular with shoppers, which, according to national surveys, are increasingly opting for local food and speciality grocers”.

Teams of Master Butchers cut every order to each customer’s exact specification. Experienced chefs prepare established dishes and meats and also come up regularly with new meal ideas.

Cunningham’s Butchers, a fourth-generation butchers in Kilkeel, has previously won the overall national and regional awards. The family butchery, which is headed by James Cunningham Jnr, won the title of ‘Best Butcher Shop’ in both the UK and Ireland 2018/2019, and has picked up a host of other accolades.

Now a butchery, deli, cafe and restaurant, Cunningham’s also produces over 1,000 different product lines including gluten-free items in-house. It has also developed programmes of events such as steak nights .

James believes the focus of the business on innovation and farming heritage underpins its success and popularity with shoppers throughout the Mournes and from further afield.

He explains: “Innovation in products and services is at the heart of our operations. To be named ‘UK Butcher Shop and Food Hall of the Year’ and also take home ‘Best Large Butcher in Ireland’ both for a second time were testaments to the great team of people we have working for us. They are the heartbeat of the business and go above and beyond for our customers.”