Inverness butcher shop Duncan Fraser & Son sold to fellow Highland company
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AN end of an era has arrived for a well-known butchers after the century-old family business was sold to another Highland firm.
Duncan Fraser has sold his Inverness business to fellow butchers John M Munro Ltd in Dingwall – ending a family association with the Highland capital shop that stretches all the way back to its inception in 1911.
The change in ownership is expected to take effect from April 12 – and all staff are being kept on, apart from Duncan Fraser's family.
Announcing the sale, he said: "Duncan Fraser & Son has been in the family since its inception in 1911, by my grandfather, and the time is now right for continuity to operate under new ownership.
"It will be a wrench for me to let it go, however, when the opportunity of the acquisition came about, I felt it was the right time to retire. [My wife] Malina and I want to enjoy family time with our daughters and on hobbies."
He added that he will miss the dedicated staff and his interactions with customers when he steps away from the shop for the last time.
"I've been with them a long long time – some of them for over 40 years. The rest of them are in their 30-years and 20s as well, so they've stayed with me an awful lot – even during Covid when we were really busy last year.
"When it kicked off the first time, it was so busy, it was a fantastic amount of work we had to go through, They all stuck with it, and some even came back from holiday to help, it was such a busy time. They helped us get through it all."
He is also proud of how successful the shop's various wares have proven to be with the public, after it won a range of national awards over the years for the likes of its sausages and bacon.
After he steps back from the business he hopes to spend quality time with his wife, take up some hobbies and also enjoy "one or two nice holidays with the family when we're allowed to go".
One of his daughters is also a first officer with easyJet, and one of his "bucket list items" is to be a passenger aboard one of the jets when she is piloting it.
He added that John M Munro is a "very well respected and expanding" business and that he hoped his existing customers will continue to support Duncan Fraser & Son under its new ownership.
He is also pleased that a local Highland business is taking the shop on as a going concern as "it'd have been heartbreaking to carry on for a few more years and not be able to find a buyer at the end of that".
"The main thing too – number one – is that the staff are being kept on and their contracts are being honoured. For my wife and me that's a big thing as well."
John M Munro's managing director, Charlie Munro, believes that the two highly successful businesses will make for "a very nice fit in terms of the next stage of our retail development" as it looks to carry out expansion in the coming decade.
"It strikes me as an incredibly good fit," he said. "We've shops everywhere except Inverness and it just makes sense to move into the capital of the Highlands."
He added that the decades-long experience of the Inverness shop's staff will also work nicely into possible plans to bring on the next generation of butchers and "keep the skills alive", by helping to train up apprentices in the wider company.
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