Sales at Sterling Meat Co – the successor to collapsed butcher shop chain Crawshaws – continued to grow strongly last year, interim financial results have shown.
The Manchester-based meat retailer – formed out of the remnants of Crawshaws, which closed in 2018 – grew revenues by 11.9% to 25.3m in 2024, its MD Jim Viggars said.
EBITDA rose by 33.3% to £2m at the chain, which currently has 11 shops in the north of England under two brands: high street butcher Meat Mart and Sterling Foods to Go.
Sterling Meat Co sold its Wolverhampton branch last year, Viggars added, but was in the process of acquiring a new store closer to its Manchester logistics hub, with the purchase due to complete in Q2 of this year.
Viggars, an ex-Asda buyer and former CEO of Crawshaws, partially attributed its success to a recent £1.5m revamp of its store estate.
The business had also kept overheads low, service levels high and had a “heavy focus on the best quality specifications in the market”, he said.
Sterling had successfully tapped into demand for high-quality meat from consumers at competitive prices, he added. And while cheaper than the major retailers on price, its mantra of “going the extra mile” was also “resonating with shoppers”, he claimed. The retailer offers a multitude of deals on bulk primal cuts and ‘combo packs’ of mixed proteins such as pork, beef and chicken.
Viggars described the chain as a “high spec, quality discounter”, rather than a “factory outlet” – helping it to attract a growing cohort of shoppers in the AB demographic.
“We waste nothing so that we can invest in price. That’s how we’ve been able to drive that value proposition,” Viggars added.
This year the business has also kicked off a butchery apprenticeship scheme, with seven trainees graduating last week and a further six enrolled from later this month – helping it create a supply line of “skilled butchers in our shops”, he said.
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