Man with muscle

Starting LFMC was a risk, he says, but he had to do it. "You decide to start your own business because you're either crazy or you think you can do it better than the people you worked for,"​ he says.

Despite the threat of straitjackets, Ferretti has done rather well. The company processes about 1,520t of meat a month through its facility, but Ferretti is reluctant to discuss turnover. Clients either want a firm small enough to give them individual attention or large enough to handle disturbances in the supply chain without affecting deliveries. Revealing turnover is going to upset one or the other, he says. However, he says it has increased by 50–100% since the beginning of the year.

Growth has continued throughout the summer, including over August when some of his staff took their holidays. "August is meant to be one of our weakest months of the year, but it's been one of our busiest,"​ he says. "When you're growing it's one of those things that happen."​

The facility, located in Streatham, southwest London, employs four butchers, four drivers, a couple of admin staff and uses contract cleaners and accountants in place of in-house staff. The firm is already upgrading the rail system used to move carcasses around the building while they are being cured or cut, as the old one could not handle the increased workload, Ferretti says.

How it's done​

LFMC offers fine quality meat to caterers as well as the general public, following the recent launch of an online delivery service for London- based customers. Quality can be a hard sell when people are tightening belts. But Ferretti says: "Thus far, we've done well. We haven't even noticed the recession. Not to be arrogant or anything."​ He has managed this by developing close relationships with customers and part of that is helping to keep down costs. For instance, LFMC offers pork from rare-breed pigs as well as regular stock, but the difference in quality is minuscule, says Ferretti. He adds that he usually recommends customers take the regular pork, unless they are looking for a unique selling point.

Similarly, with roast beef, topside cuts are more popular than silverside cuts but, if handled correctly, silversides can be just as good to roast and cheaper, he says.

Ferretti also attributes part of his success to focusing on smaller, lesser known independents and chains. "Catering suppliers love to name drop but I don't go after big names." ​The lesser names more often tend to be valued repeat customers, he says.

Growing​

While advertising and marketing have been important in attracting these customers, his business has mainly grown through referrals, he adds. Discounts on price just to attract new customers do not work. "What happens when the discounts go away?" ​he asks. Instead, he finds reliability to be key for customers in differentiating the suppliers.

Going forward, Ferretti hopes to attract new customers by expanding into Kosher-certified food. He already sells pre-boxed Halal-certified meat, so Kosher would be a logical expansion. However, there are different levels of religious adherence and what may be Kosher or Halal for one may not be for another, he says.

He believes there is an opportunity to bring about a high-street butchery revival. From a supply point of view, it would be easy for LFMC to do. The firm would not need many of the normal butchery facilities such as a large amount of fridge space, mincers and many of the bigger cutting tools. Instead, most of the handling and storing could be done at the central facility before being delivered to the various branches. This would cut the start-up costs and cut down on future running costs while maintaining product freshness, he says.

But, for now, Ferretti is happy to take things slowly. He plans to continue growing the online side of his business to the point where it provides a similar amount of turnover to the catering side does before undertaking further expansion. After all, didn't you know, there's a recession on?