The modern butcher faces stiff competition, whether they’re working in a dedicated butcher’s shop, or in-house at a supermarket counter. Whatever the nature of your premises, it’s a good plan to improve productivity in all aspects of the business in order to make the most of busy periods. Improving productivity essentially maximises your efficiency, allowing you to provide optimum service and high-quality products for your customers, ultimately maximising your sales in turn.

Here are three ways to maximise productivity when running a butcher’s shop.

Invest in training

With increasingly fewer young people entering the butchery industry, training has never been a more vital concern. Providing the newest or youngest recruits with proper training helps them to be more enthusiastic, efficient, and more productive. Most importantly, it helps them to be safer, both in respect to their working practices and how they use their tools and equipment, such as their butchers knives. After all, maximum productivity isn’t the same thing as maximum speed!

Use high-quality equipment

Quality equipment makes everyone’s job that bit easier and speeds up preparation time. Knives must be new or at least well maintained, including sharpening them on a regular basis. After all, it’s impossible for a blunt knife to cut efficiently.

cutting with the grain

Also, don’t skimp on fixed pieces of equipment like a burger press, a sausage filler, or a decent mincer which can make light work of raw meat. Shoppers regularly purchase minced meat to prepare shepherd’s pie or spaghetti bolognese, so it’s important to have some available at all times.

Create a reward-based work culture

Working in a butcher’s shop often means being in close quarters for hours at a time. It’s a good idea to keep things light and positive even when it gets busy. Work on creating a team dynamic. Create a reward system for improvements in the preparation of food products, keeping a cleaner work area and customer service performance. If someone is struggling, working out practical steps to help them improve is a far more appropriate measure than piling on more pressure.

This is where the training comes in - if an employee is failing to perform their job up to a required standard, additional training is often one of the most effective remedies (but unfortunately, not always the first resort!). It can also be helpful to work out ways in which employees can support each other and work all together as a single, cohesive team, rather than siloing off their various jobs with minimal interaction between them - this is what can lead to bottlenecks, stress, and an impact on productivity.

And if you’re looking for the best equipment to round out the complement in your butcher’s shop, you’re in exactly the right place. We’ve got a comprehensive range of tools and machinery here at Butcher’s Equipment warehouse, including reliable butcher’s knives and tools from our own in-house brand, as well as leading brands like F. Dick and Victorinox.