Trading on tradition helps rural refuseniks take country path to 21st century success

Reports of the demise of bucolic Britain have been greatly exaggerated, according to the Countryside Alliance. As Christopher Middleton discovers, its Best Rural Retailer 2007 competition attracted a record 2,500 entries and, for the second year running, The Daily Telegraph is proud to sponsor the Best Traditional Business category, won by Andrew Rees, a butcher in Pembrokeshire.

"We used to have just one little door that you had to open and shut behind you and, to be honest, it wasn't particularly inviting,'' recalls Rees, now 42 but a youthful 22 when he bought the shop. "People felt that if they were to come through the door, they'd be expected to buy something, so rather than risk that, they'd keep on going. The way we've got it now, though, everyone feels free to step inside and browse.''

Yes, even in his choice of shop layout, Andrew displays the same openness to the local community which has won him the Best Traditional Business category in this year's Countryside Alliance Rural Retailer Awards.

Right across the board, the judges commended the Narberth-born-and-bred butcher not just

for the way he supports the surrounding Pembrokeshire farmers (he won't let non-local meat in his shop), but for the countless acts of kindness and generosity which he performs among the local population.

Nothing typifies the firm's culture of helpfulness more vividly than what happened at the start of January to Ward Nicholas, one of the senior counter staff in the shop. He had just finished serving a disabled woman in a motorised wheelchair when he noticed she was having difficulty manoeuvring out of the shop; at the point when it looked as if her buggy was going to topple over, the public-spirited Nicholas rushed out to rescue her, and slipped over on the floor.

"Broke his leg in three places he did,'' winces his boss. "Terrible to look at, it was. I'm not squeamish when I'm cutting up bones and flesh on animals, but people are a different matter. What made it worse was that this lady didn't realise Ward had been trying to save her; as luck would have it, her buggy righted itself, and she tootled on up the High Street in blissful ignorance.''

Dig into the firm's files, and you come up with wads of correspondence recording similar, if less spectacular, acts of goodwill. There's a letter from Saundersfoot Primary School, thanking the shop for the donation of sausages to the school's post-fun run barbecue. There's also a card from St Mary's Church at nearby Nash, that describes the relish with which parishioners tucked into a free ham.

And there's a photograph of 25 triumphant young boys from the Narberth Junior Rugby Club, celebrating their victory in the Pembrokeshire Under-14s Cup, all of them clad in smart blue kit bearing the sponsor's name (Andrew Rees and Sons).

"Ah, well, that doesn't really count, because my son Thomas plays in the centre for them,'' demurs Dad modestly, pointing

out a young Rees lookalike in the back of the line-up. "Besides, in a small community like this, it makes sense to get your firm's name out and about.''

Possibly so, but there was no doubt in the judges' minds that this was a local trader prepared to trudge that extra wet Welsh mile on the community's behalf. As Countryside Alliance chief executive Simon Hart puts it: "Andrew represents the very best of this Traditional Business category - traditional skills and values, support for his community and a determination that food and farming will have a future.''

Virtues highlighted by other judges included the vast range of meats on sale in the shop (plus fish from nearby Milford Haven), the generous loaning of free refrigerator space to local farmers and the way in which the business has developed a thriving catering wing, supplying both prime cuts to upmarket hotels and burgers to nearby Oakwood Theme Park.

"It seems as though there is very little going on in this community that Andrew is not either part of or supporting,'' observes Daily Telegraph assistant editor (and competition judge) Andrew Pierce.

However, it wasn't always so. Back in 1988, the would-be young entrepreneur found it extremely hard to get local backing. "I went to two banks in Narberth and got nowhere,'' he recalls. "In the end, I decided to go further afield, and the branch of Lloyds in Carmarthen eventually agreed to lend me pounds 60,000; I was still pounds 12,000 short, but my future father-in-law made me a bridging loan, bless him.

"To start with, my wife Janice and I lived in a little flat above the shop here, and her dad did deliveries for us to help out. I'm proud to say I was able to pay him back the loan within just three years.''

Since then, Andrew has overseen an increase both in turnover and workforce (he now has 15 employees) but has never reduced his commitment to locally grown food. "Our beef here is Welsh Black, which I believe to be the best there is,'' he declares. "When I first started, there wasn't much of it around, but I like to think we've helped reverse that trend. Unlike the supermarkets, we hang our beef for a good three to four weeks, which means we lose a lot of the weight in terms of blood but we gain enormously in terms of flavour.'' A fact that can be vouched for by the customers who line up each lunchtime for his hot roast beef rolls ( £2.20 a time).

"Yes, of course the rolls are made with Welsh Black,'' he replies, horrified at the suggestion they might be anything else. "I suppose it would theoretically be possible for us to cook off inferior joints of meat from abroad, but if I did that I could never hold my head up in Narberth again.''

No danger of that happening, especially not now. Wearing his Best Traditional Business crown, Andrew Rees can henceforth walk throughout Pembrokeshire with head held not just up, but high.

* Winners of the other three categories in

the Best Rural Retailer Awards (Best Village Shop/Post Office, Best Local Food Retailer, Best Diversification) will be announced at a special presentation in the House of Lords on Wednesday.

* For more details on the competition, see www.bestruralretailer.co.uk.

Best Traditional Business,regional winners

Scotland - Watt the Butcher, Montrose, Angus

North East of England - Tully's Food Shop, Rothbury, Northumberland

North West of England - Alexander James Tailoring, Pendlebury, Manchester

Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire - Brocklehursts Outfitters, Bakewell, Derbyshire

East of England - Central Wool Growers, Stamford, Lincolnshire (also national runner-up)

Midlands - Clarke's Butchers and Delicatessen, Queniborough, Leicestershire

North Wales and Cheshire - SA Harrison Hardware, Coedpoeth, Denbighshire

South and West Wales - Andrew Rees and Sons Butchers, Narberth, Pembrokeshire (also national winner)

South West of England - Acorn Saddlery, South Molton, Devon

Wessex - Glyn Slade-Jones Butchers, Kington, Herefordshire

South of England - FE Coles Butchers, Kettering, Northamptonshire

South East of England - Showing Time Tailoring, Bethersden, Kent

* This year's judges in the Best Traditional Business Category were: Andrew Pierce, assistant editor, Daily Telegraph; Simon Hart, chief executive, Countryside Alliance; Alexia Robinson, director, British Food Fortnight; Dr Stuart Burgess, Rural Advocate for England and chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities; Tim Relf, farmlife editor of Farmers Weekly; Zac Goldsmith, director, The Ecologist.

HIGH GRADE

* The art of wool-grading may not be as big a part of rural life as it once was, but it is still alive and well and living in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

* Central Wool Growers (CWG), national runner-up in the Telegraph's Best Traditional Business category, employs half a dozen professional graders of wool, who have 150 years of experience between them. With just a touch of the hand, they can tell the age and breed of the sheep from which the fleece has come.

* "This is an extremely skilful job which takes five years to master'', says Simon Hart,chief executive of the Countryside Alliance. "Keeping this tradition going in a modern market takes ingenuity and dedication.

Andrew Rees & Sons
29 High St
Narberth
Pembrokeshire
Wales
SA67 7AY
01834 861892

CWG, Uffington Road
Stamford
Lincolnshire
PE9 2HD        
www.cwg.co.uk
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