New life for old butchery

Waipawa locals have noticed changes are afoot at their local butcher's, but the new owners of the business have assured one thing won't be changing - the butchery's award-winning sausages.

Patangata Station owners Duncan Smith and Annabel-Tapley Smith took over Waipawa Butchery, which has been operating in Central Hawke's Bay for nearly 70 years, from previous owner and butcher Murray Stephens.

After starting as a 16-year-old butchery apprentice under his dad, Jock, who opened the butchery on Waipawa's main street with a business partner in 1948, Mr Stephens spent 60 years in the business, including 30 years as owner, until he retired last month.

New co-owner Annabel Tapley-Smith said she and her husband had plans to usher the butchery business into the modern age. But she promised that did not include changing the recipe of Mr Stephens' sausages, which took out the supreme award in the NZ National Sausage competition back in 1998.

"Our family has grown up eating Murray's sausages. Our favourite is the crumbed sausage - I have never tasted anything that comes close to it. So we have no plans to change any of the secret sausage recipes," she said.

The couple have wasted no time in putting their stamp on the business. Already, new black-and-white signage has been installed on the exterior of the business, matching the new uniforms and aprons worn by the five butchery staff, including new head butcher and shop manager, Justin Hinchco.

Apart for the cosmetic changes and new faces in-store, customers can expect to see a difference in the meat in the cabinet displays.

Duncan Smith said all the beef and lamb would be sourced from the couple's Patangata Station farm 15kms away, and transported to the butchery in the newly-branded black-and-white chilled delivery truck.

"The beef will be Angus heifers because of their great marbling characteristics and the lamb will come from the Suffolk-Texel ewe lambs which are all finished on farm. The aim is to provide consistency of quality and quantity," he said.

To run the store, the owners have headhunted 2016 Lower North Island Young Butcher of the Year Justin Hinchco, who learned last week he had been named as a finalist in the national Butcher of the Year competition for 2017.

After honing his trade in Waikato and Havelock North, Hinchco said he was relishing working with the "excellent quality" animals sourced from Patangata Station.

"For a butcher to be able to actually visit the farm and inspect the animals that will end up in the store, it's a dream job," he said.

Mrs Tapley-Smith, who runs an events and communications company and has been responsible for delivering the Hawke's Bay Wine Auction for the past three years, said other plans for the business included the launch of online shopping via the butchery's new website, which is now live.

"We're looking at introducing online shopping in the next week.

"We've already introduced a customer loyalty rewards card and will make a few other changes, but all the meat is still wrapped in brown paper, like an old-fashioned butcher.

"While customers will have noticed a few of the changes, we want them to know that we are still firm believers in the methods of a traditional butcher shop but with the added advantage of knowing their beef and lamb has come from a local farmer."