WE HAVE TWO DAYS TO SAVE RUDDINGTON VILLAGE BUTCHERS!
It’s been revealed that one of our cheeriest shopkeepers will have to shut his unique business for good unless a lifeline can be found before the end of trading tomorrow (Saturday 28th July).
An uncharacteristically melancholy Shane Ginty told RUDDINGTON.info he can now see “no way out” of his financial dilemma after a recent drop in custom has meant his shop trading at a loss for the past few months. A steady decline in footfall – which has been made even worse by the sudden closure of Thomas’s Greengrocers at Easter – has left his own business unable to sustain further losses. “Barring a miracle it looks like I’m going to have to close on Saturday” said a tearful Shane.
Ruddington was without a butcher’s shop for almost a year in 2010 after the legendary David Oliver retired and his former assistant Robert Warner was unable to continue his legacy. However the historic shop at 15, Church Street sprang back into life under the vibrant ownership of Stewart White in April 2011 – alongside his shop manager Shane – revitalising and modernising the village business with great success. Shane then took over the shop in February 2015 when Stewart moved to Merseyside to be with his new girlfriend and get married.
Until the start of this year it seems things had still been going okay. Only last week Ruddington Village Butchers was highlighted in a Rushcliffe Borough Council promotion for The Great British High Street and also featured in May’s issue of The Rudd when Shane told the publication: “I pride myself on offering the highest quality of meats, but offering cheeses is something different to what you might expect from a butcher. As well as our regular staples of Stilton, Red Leicester, Lancashire and Mature Cheddar, we have all sorts of speciality cheeses. These include Bouncing Berry (a blend of Cheddar and cranberry), Cornish Yarg (a mild, creamy Cheddar, wrapped in an edible rind of nettle weeds) and Black Bomber (an extra mature cheese that really bites back!)”. Shane’s collaboration with The Frame Breakers pub has also been a big hit, with the pub menu offering Shane’s sausages based on their Rock Mild and Bullion ales.
Yet, bizarrely, it seems all this was not enough to get new shoppers queueing at his door?!
HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO….
Just four months’ ago, THOUSANDS of you read our article about the closure of Thomas’s and took to social media to express your shock and dismay after we reported the historic business had suddenly gone into liquidation. Sadly by then it was too late – as too many villagers who loved the idea of having a local, independent greengrocer’s were forgetting to actually shop there.
The loss of this business even prompted the formation of a new Ruddington Village Centre Partnership group. NOW shockwaves are going around Ruddington social media about this latest bombshell for our village centre – as it looks as if we might also lose our last independent village butcher forever – again due to a lack of support.
Yet Ruddington is certainly NOT short of potential customers. We have over SEVEN THOUSAND residents and THOUSANDS more visiting daily to work in or around our village centre. Even if only a small fraction of us can make that tiny extra effort to shop at Ruddington Village Butchers TODAY or TOMORROW it could be enough to tip the balance. And – when you’ve shopped there once – we’re certain you’ll want to keep going back for more. Whether you need quality meat, amazing sausages, burgers, bacon, ham, cheese, pies, condiments, free range eggs, etc for the weekend PLEASE CHANGE YOUR SHOPPING PLANS RIGHT NOW and buy everything you can from Shane instead – but do it STRAIGHT AWAY. He opens at around 8am. Otherwise next week we might find ourselves with yet another empty shop. It’s BBQ weather for goodness sake!
ALSO, if you’re a Ruddington catering business which buys its meat from elsewhere, why not place TODAY’s order at our Village Butchers’ instead?
PLEASE HELP SHANE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. ALL HE NEEDS IS YOUR SUPPORT! BUT HE NEEDS IT NOW!
Thank you.
SUN 29th JUL:
There is an update to this story. Please read it >>HERE<<.
