Support Local: Magill's Butchery

This month in our Support Local series, we're shining the light on the amazing work of Magill's Butchery. Based in Te Awamutu, this awesome company have been providing meat for many Volare products for some time now, and we are never disappointed with the quality of their meat and service. We recently had a chat with them to learn a bit more about their history and where they're headed, so keep reading to learn more.

What is the back-story of Magill's Butchery?

Magill's was originally owned by Mr Magill (hence the name), but when Adrian Van Der Hoeven immigrated from the Netherlands in the early 1960’s, he began working as a butcher. He worked at Magill's for few years and in the late 1960’s when Mr Magill sadly passed away, Adrian bought the business. Magills is now owned and run by Mike Van Der Hoeven (Adrian’s son) and two of his sons, Edward and John (Adrian’s grandsons).

What makes Magills different?

Our longstanding history in the Waikato, and along with that, our partnership with our suppliers (our beef brand Hereford Prime and local pork supplier Waratah Duroc Pork) where we have always had a huge focus on quality. In more recent years our point of difference has been our growth in the sous vide industry. What started back in 2015 as a need to find a better use for tougher cuts of meat which were not as popular anymore, has grown into a recently finished multi-million-dollar plant which currently produces several tonnes of sous vide product a week.

What is your most popular product and why?

Our most popular product is our Slow Cooked Pulled Beef. We have several corporate clients such as schools, catering and meal kit companies who love and use this product because of its taste, ease-of-use and quality. And we have to give our dry cured Vandy’s Streaky Bacon a mention too, as it is very popular with chefs across the region, and with our retail customers in our store and throughout supermarkets in NZ.

Is the business primarily wholesale or retail?

A huge part of our business is wholesale, but we still have a retail store (and online store) based in Te Awamutu which is open 6 days a week to serve our wonderful local community.

What trends or innovations are you most excited about in your industry?

With the recent completion of our new sous vide plant, we are excited to build our clientele in this industry and keep providing New Zealand with our slow cooked meats and expand on the product range.

What is your favourite Volare product?

This is a tough one! We couldn’t pick one as we love the San Francisco Sourdough, the sandwiches, the pies and sausage rolls (some of which are made using Magill's meat) and we couldn’t go without mentioning the cronuts!

What's in store for Magills in the future? Any big goals etc.?

Some goals that pop to mind are to get our new plant running at full capacity, to continue working on new product development in the sous vide space and to look at investing more into the paddock to plate process.

We love working with Magill's and hope that you stop in and check out their store when you're next in Te Awamutu, or order online by clicking here. Just a friendly reminder to support local, whenever you can!

If you're a local producer and would like to collaborate on a product in the future, we'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch.