'It's killing us': Butchers speak of their misery as cost of living crisis threatens business

It comes after two local businesses closed their doors in recent months after decades of serving the community.

Bates Butchers, which saw four generations since opening in 1930, served its last customer in November last year. The Pendeford Avenue shop survived the Second World War, a fire in 2014 and most recently the Covid-19 pandemic, but the spiralling electricity costs were its final coup de grâce.

Another family-run butchers in Wolverhampton, Garbett's, closed in July 2022 and wrote a heartfelt goodbye to their Facebook followers. Though the family didn't share the reason for their departure, there was speculation that they fell victim to the cheaper and more competitive prices of supermarket giants.

Their post was met with floods of comments from disappointed customers. One said there were "not many lovely people like you left". Another comment read: "Not unexpected in today's way of life, people have lost that sense of friendship the small shop can bring." The building that once housed the much-loved business is due to be sold at auction next week.

Nathan Jones, of Deakin-Jones Family Butchers, Sedgley, said his business suffered "dramatically" during Covid, but the cost of living crisis is "even worse".

Mr Jones said: "Many of our customers haven't come back to us. I would say Covid has changed many people's habits, as a lot of them order online now and are still to scared to go out and shop locally.

"The cost of living crisis has affected us more than Covid with price increases and energy costs. As a business we have to work on a higher percentage margin to even earn minimum wage at the moment. Being self employed doesn't help either, with the government taxing us with the minimum income floor. Some months we don't even get minimum wage."

Nathan said they are forced to increase their prices due to rising costs, but feels this is "squeezing them out of the market."

"We sell our produce at the same price as supermarkets, so our prices are not that bad really," he said. "As a business we are just ticking over. I hope more customers can support us so we can bring even more great produce, and bring the prices down as we could lower our profit margins then.

"We are confident in our meat and hope people can come and try our products. They won't regret it!"

He said the shop works for their community and "gives back" every year by donating turkeys and Christmas dinners to their local church as well as to a wellbeing centre.

"The energy bills are killing most butcher shops now, though," he added. "They are ridiculous. We're lucky that we're trading from a market, where we have a bill cap in place until next January. Hopefully it will calm down by then."

But others aren't so lucky.

"One of my friends has just closed his business," he continued. "His bills had gone from £400 a week to £1,300 a week – I don't know how they've worked that out. Another butcher I know had his energy bills go from £16,000 a year to £75,000 a year.

"No business can survive this. It's like the government wants to close all small, local businesses, and just have huge companies and supermarkets, nothing else. Soon there will be no high street or local shops."

Michael Bachyk, owner of award-winning Wolverhampton butchers Michael Kirk, had thoughts not too dissimilar.

He said: "The utility bills are hurting us. Our gas bill last month was £2,000. It's ridiculous. They're plucking figures out the sky.

"The cost of living obviously has affected us, like many other businesses. Customers, I've noticed, are coming in but not buying so much, they're being careful with their money.

"All we can do is make sure they are taking away fresh produce. That's the benefit we have, is that our produce is fresh every day, pies are baked fresh, sausages are made fresh. We are trying to help by keeping our prices low and selling only the freshest food.

"It's just upsetting, hearing on the radio about how much profit these electricity companies are making. There are people in need.

"It's a dying trade. We are getting older. But we will carry on."