Advertorial: Award-winning Price & Fretwell pivots to deliver local meat to households

Price & Fretwell of Tibshelf, Derbyshire, was on the brink of disaster for the first time in its 30-year history when the hospitality sector closed in late March 2020. With pubs & restaurants accounting for 98% of sales, Great Food Club’s Catering Butcher of the Year 2020 was rushing towards a cliff edge more precipitous than Giddy Edge near Matlock Bath – one of Derbyshire’s most hair-raising sheer drops.

But they make them tough in Derbyshire! Led by father-and-son team Nathan & Darren Price, Price & Fretwell pivoted to focus on household deliveries. They effectively built a new business overnight.

“We are now delivering to more than 300 houses weekly in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Rutland,” says Nathan.

That number is growing fast. Click here to order and push it higher.

The timing of lockdown was particularly tough on this East Midlands butcher. It’d been on a roll. Having won the Great Food Club accolade late last year for its “consistency, excellent products and superb customer service”, business was booming. Sales were at record levels (up 15% year on year) and Price & Fretwell was attracting new clients weekly, adding to a portfolio that already included The Olive Branch in Clipsham, Stapleford Park near Melton Mowbray, The Chubby Castor in Castor and Orbis in Oakham to name but a few.

Today, the business is turning over 30% of what it did pre-lockdown, but the cliff edge has been avoided. Moreover, sales are growing.

And that’s not surprising because the quality is high. Price & Fretwell’s speciality is dry-aged beef farmed in Leicestershire and South Yorkshire, but it also offers lamb from Burghley Park Estate in Stamford, lamb from the Belvoir Estate, and chicken from Church Hill Farm.

An Olive Branch beef dish – the award-winning Rutland pub is one of Price & Fretwell’s regular customers

To order a Price & Fretwell household meat delivery, call the office team on 01773 591 212 (Tuesday to Friday 7am to 5pm and Saturday 7am to 12pm). Or alternatively, order online here. The butcher offers free next-day delivery for orders placed before 9pm. Orders after 9pm are processed the next day and delivered the day after that.

Nathan says: “We’re proud to have brought our service to families and households during lockdown. It’s especially rewarding to deliver to vulnerable and isolated people. Also, we are delivering to restaurants that have remained open for takeaway including The Palfrey in Derby (Derby Restaurant of the Year 2019), The Grey Goose at Gilmorton in Leicestershire, Barnacles Restaurant & Bar Bistro in Hinckley and The Beehive Inn at Combs in the High Peak.”

“Another silver lining has been teaming up with other local producers such as Bull Baking Co, Woodthorpe Grange Farm, Pro Chef Terrines & Patés, Positive Kitchen and Parsnips & Pears.”

Click here to order a delivery from Price & Fretwell.

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