Young butcher up for award

A 19 year-old trainee butcher who works in Kilcreggan has been nominated for the “Young Butcher of the Year” Competition.
Craig Rennie, who lives in East Princes Street and is a former pupil of Hermitage Academy, works as an apprentice for Kilcreggan butcher Kevin Walker.
Craig, who is a member of the local Air Cadets Unit, originally started to train as a chef but found that it wasn’t for him and when he heard at Kevin was looking for an apprentice he seized the opportunity.
Now he takes great pleasure in helping his boss develop the range of offerings in the small village butcher shop and has become a firm favourite with the customers with whom he is often on first name terms.
Speaking about being nominated for the award, which puts him in the top 100 young butchers in Scotland, he said: “I am dead chuffed.
“I really enjoy my job. I am always learning something new and Kevin is a really good teacher.
“I have just started my SVQ level 3 which I hope will help me develop my supervisor skills. This should allow Kevin to feel that when he goes on holiday that he is leaving his business in a “safe pair of hands”.
“I would also like to take some time to travel around other areas and shops to identify new products, which we could, sell and develop giving our customers a greater choice of products.”
He says that he hopes that he will become a really good butcher and one day have a shop of his own.
Kevin said: “I am very proud of him. He is doing very well and it is good to see someone young and enthusiastic coming into a trade.”
Craig’s Scottish Meat Training assessor Gordon King put him forward for the award and in his report said that had taken only nine months to complete his SVQ level 2, Butchery retail skills, Modern Apprentice and continued: “Craig demonstrated his skills in manufacturing, customer service, primal cutting, boning, seam cutting and trimming. Craig also provided evidence of working safely and hygienically, essential skills in the food industry.
“His employer, Kevin Walker, who has supported him throughout his course, taught him his skills to a high level.
“Although the shop is small and does not have a large display area, Craig is keen on developing new products with his employer. He was also never shy to ask his assessors opinion on the latest product he had thought of.”
Kevin added: “Since he joined me in the shop he has made fantastic progress. He has paid intense attention to all the skills I have passed on, taking to it like a “duck to water”, sometimes developing his own technique but still working to a high standard.
“Our shop is in a small community on a small peninsula on the north bank of the Firth of Clyde. Craig’s development is of great interest to many of our customers. They often ask him how he is “getting on”, with Craig happy to tell them what he has been working on.”