Forget taking numbers in the busy butcher’s shop: a chicken thigh, tenderloin or Japanese Wagyu minced meat simply goes into the digital shopping cart. As the third generation of a Meppel butcher family, Bert-Jan Lantinga sees plenty of new opportunities for the industry. “But we continue to process and make everything ourselves, just like then.”
Grandpa Lantinga entered the trade as a 14-year-old boy and opened his own business nine years later, just after the liberation in 1945. Selecting, slaughtering and processing meat by hand was common at that time, and grandpa taught this method well. in his posterity. Son Jan, who took over the business in his twenties in 1973 and opened two new stores, did it this way and grandson Bert-Jan continued the tradition.
After five years of co-ownership with his father, Bert-Jan took over the business in 2006. “I also stood in the butcher shop every day to cut the meat myself.” The shops – there are now three – are running well, but Lantinga does notice that something needs to change: “People are more likely to go for the convenience of a supermarket: going to different addresses for groceries takes time.”
Boy’s dream
Lantinga decided to merge two of the three traditional butchers in 2013 into ‘Vershuis’, where delicacies and home-made meals are sold. Only the original business in Wanneperveen remains open. Another five years later, he decided to pursue his boyhood dream: working with special meat breeds from all corners of the world.
He developed a preference for foreign meat during his butcher training. When he travels to South America and Asia, he sees how animals live there. “In countries like Uruguay, cows live like God in France. The climate is perfect for being outside. They are almost never in a stable, like here.” He leaves the selection to local inspectors and slaughterhouses. “They take all kinds of protocols and properties into account. For example, some people like to eat a piece of meat from a grain-fed cow, while others enjoy grass-fed beef.”
Lantinga’s grandfather and father only sold Dutch pig, beef and chicken, but that is not the only difference. In order to also be able to sell foreign meat varieties, he opened the online store The Butchery. That idea arose from the desire to expand entrepreneurship. But the world of online entrepreneurship is very different from what Lantinga was used to. He therefore set up The Butchery with his girlfriend and now business partner Suzanne Bralten, who is an online marketer and comes from the media.
Vegetarians
The growing group of vegetarians has not yet bothered entrepreneurs. “I see that more and more people are opting for less but better meat.” The Butchery is partly a niche: in addition to Dutch free-range chicken fillet, Limburg Monastery pig, beef from the Drenthe Landscape Foundation and other classics, the couple focuses on the hobby barbecuer and expats who want meat from their home country. “And with a webshop we can of course deliver far beyond Meppel.”
The duo benefited from the lockdowns during corona, in which the ‘eating out at home trend’ emerged and the online food ordering market quickly matured. “Almost everything is different in my new company,” says the entrepreneur. “In 1946 there was no internet, it was a matter of getting up early and running the shop. From a traditional butcher’s shop to a thousand orders per week that are sent from hundreds of square meters is quite a difference. There is also a lot more involved in the entrepreneurial field: managing different teams, for example, and we work with online agencies and two couriers.”
Sounding board
Father Jan watches with satisfaction as his son carries out the profession in a completely different way. “He comes every day to see how many boxes are being sent. I still consult with him before major investments and I come to him for advice. It’s nice to have such a sounding board. Now let’s see if I can get my two daughters crazy, for now they stick to sticking stickers on the boxes.”