Butchery firm Turnbull’s has announced the completion of a new 1,000 sq ft unit on Alnwick’s Lionheart Industrial Estate, which it says will meet its business expansion requirements.
It will also free up space at the company’s Market Street shop to further upgrade facilities in-house.
The £100,000 project to provide a standalone meat cutting and processing unit has attracted support funding from LEADER, a community-led approach to rural development. It is seen by Defra as an important way of addressing rural needs.
The funding has been made available through the Rural Development Programme for England, which is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union.
Mark Turnbull said: “We had long outgrown our town centre shop, which is a Grade 2 Listed building, and decided the time was right to move our meat cutting and processing operation to a separate location.
“This will allow us not only to make further improvements at the shop, primarily to our in-house bakery, but also to expand our business in general.
“These enhanced facilities will enable us to pursue potential new retail opportunities and supply more customers across the region – delicatessens, hotels, restaurants and pubs – with Northumberland-sourced beef, lamb and pork, including our award-winning sausages, bacon, pies, and other products.”
Turnbull’s have also been accepted into the highly acclaimed ‘Produced in Northumberland’ initiative fronted by Northumberland County Council, whose key aim is to verify that foods are actually produced in the county or, in the case of meat, that it originates from animals that have lived their entire lives in the county.
“Nothing could be closer to our own philosophy and we are extremely proud to be both part of and to help to fly the flag on behalf of this forward-looking programme, which promotes the fantastic foods produced and made here – a true taste of Northumberland,” said Turnbull, the fifth generation to work in the family firm, which was founded in 1880 and remains one of Alnwick’s oldest established businesses.
