Black Country women urged to steak out work learning all about butchery trade
Two female butchers in the Black Country are urging more women to take up the traditionally male-dominated trade.
A recruitment campaign has been launched across the country as part of National Butchers Week, which started this week.
And Teressa Malsbury and June Price at Walter Smith in West Bromwich say it is a good career for both men and women.
Mrs Price, aged 45 of Stone Cross, West Bromwich, had never harboured any ambitions of becoming a butcher but decided to apply when she saw a job advertised four years ago. Mrs
Price, who has two sons aged nine and 24, and a 22-year-old daughter, said: "I was a stay-at-home mum and before that I worked as a ward service officer at Sandwell Hospital, which was quite a different job to this. I love working here though, and I love meeting the customers. Everyone gets on so well – we are like a family, and there is always a bit of banter."
Both women were trained for NVQs in butchery after joining the firm.
Mrs Malsbury of Hateley Heath, West Bromwich, previously worked in the kitchen at Tameside Primary School in Wednesbury and at a pizza takeaway.
She puts together the cooked food counter at the butchers, which sells pies, sliced meats and pork sandwiches, and says she gets "satisfaction" when customers say they have enjoyed food they bought from the shop.
Mrs Price said she would encourage young women to choose butchery as a career and added: "Not enough of them realise that they can do it just as well as men. Some of the meat can be really heavy but the men can help lift them - everyone works together."
