Monkstown butchers expands after 25 years in business

A Monkstown family butchers are marking their 25th anniversary milestone with a major expansion having moved into new premises.

Thanks to an investment of £25,000, the Butchers & Deli Monkstown has moved to bigger premises and opened a new deli and hot food counter.

Run by husband and wife, Raymond and Laura Millar, the community butchers prides itself in selling quality assured meats from local Northern Ireland farms, however identified the need for a lunchtime and deli menu.

Laura explained: “The background of our move is that we have had our eye on the corner unit in the row of shops since Covid-19 and the opportunity came up so we decided to take the plunge and relocate and expand.

"The Butchers has been in the family since Raymond’s dad bought it in October 1998 and it is coming into its 25th year. We have always thought about expanding as we identified a gap in the market. We couldn’t find our favourite lunch spot when we were off on a Monday without driving some distance, so we decided we could do more for the local community by offering hot food, a bakery as well as treats.

“We also wanted to expand our shelf product range but unfortunately with the guidance of Environment Health our existing premises were too small.”

Closing for a week after Easter and a lot of hard work, the Butchers finally opened and was a huge success.

Laura continued: “Thanks to a tight budget of 25,000 and hard work, we managed to relocate and opened last week. The investment enabled us to move the existing equipment and fridges as well as buying second hand equipment to get up the deli and hot food bar. We also bought new uniforms, signage and redecorated the new premises.

“We had to close for a while but our customers didn’t mind and we were blown away by the support when we reopened, a lot of the food was sold out.

“We now employ seven part time employees with various shifts and hours and we are looking to employ more staff in the future.

"We also have a soon to be school leave student who has shown interest in becoming a butcher and we are planning on putting him through his apprenticeship next year once he has done a full BBQ season and Christmas to ensure it's a career path.”

Looking ahead, Laura added: “We absolutely love serving our local community and are excited for what’s ahead of us and with the support of the community and customers behind us we are extremely positive that our investment will ensure we have a positive future in the town.”