Butcher ready to move up a league

Mar 31 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

A BUTCHER who supplies hotels and restaurants across the region has brought a new partner on board so it can expand.

Wholesale and catering butcher Mike Fenwick signed up long-time friend Nick Watson as an investor so the Newton Aycliffe firm – also called Mike Fenwick – can move into bigger premises.

Mr Fenwick said: “I started as a sole trader in a butcher’s shop in the back streets of Darlington in 1986, and we turned over £50,000-plus. Now we have around £2.5m turnover and we now employ 12 full-time and two part-time, all based in Aycliffe.”

The firm needed to move to cope with its expansion and gain European Union approval. Mr Fenwick said: “We want to become EU approved and our other factory probably wouldn’t have come up to the standard. The new cutting plant will get EU approval within four to six weeks.

“We intend to concentrate on the catering side, supplying hotels and restaurants. The trade counter we are putting in, the farm shop, is going to be a traditional butcher’s shop, open to the trade and the public.

“The company’s planned expansion into its new premises is now well on track and we should be in our new home shortly after Easter.” Mike Fenwick formed a limited liability partnership (LLP) set up to enable further growth and investment, on advice of TBI Solicitors and Haines Watts Chartered Accountants. Some finance was provided by NEL Fund Managers Ltd.

TBI head of corporate law John Walters said: “Mike Fenwick is well known in the North East catering trade, and with this new structure in place, and the increased investment it brings, the company will continue to go from strength to strength.

“It is good to see a local firm growing confidently, especially in these challenging economic times.” Haines Watts corporate finance manager Graham Cornforth said: “At a time when many businesses are in need of support, our ability to help secure a substantial grant and additional business funding for Mike Fenwick demonstrates that it remains possible to secure funding for good projects.”