A small Aberdeen butcher shop is going mobile with a £100,000 investment designed to tackle the pressures the internet has posed to traditional business models.
James and Julie Haig opened their family firm 10 years ago and have seen it grow from 15 to 18 members of staff. And after launching a range of diet-friendly meat products, Mrs Haig says the city-centre shop now attracts customers from as far away as Glasgow and Inverness.
The pair said that having noticed the failure of a number of local butchers in the area, they decided to act on the pressures online shopping was having on smaller firms.
They have purchased a specially designed refrigerated van which will allow them to transport their stock to customers around the region.
As well as buying the van the company is also undergoing a complete redesign of its website, which will allow people to place their orders online before Haigs delivers it to locations around Aberdeen, including Bridge of Don, Kittybrewster, Mannofield and Cove.
Customers further afield will also benefit as 25 locations around Aberdeenshire – as far up as Banff and down towards Laurencekirk – have been earmarked for the delivery scheme.
Mrs Haig said they had listened to their customers’ requests to bring their products closer to them.
She said the idea came to them a couple of years ago but it had taken months to find a company to design a van suitable with fridges and hand-washing facilities as well as to create a website.
She said: “We do not do mail orders, despite being asked for them, as we don’t believe it would be properly chilled.
“This way we can ensure it is transported properly ourselves. We have witnessed the closure of a number of smaller independent retailers in the area because they can’t compete with online sales, so we decided to try to beat the internet by providing an online delivery service.”
Mrs Haig said they already provided stock to shops around the north-east and said she would not be delivering to areas where their products were already readily available.
The mobile shop is expected to be in action in January and will allow customers to order online and collect from the van when it reaches its specific destination.
