M & K Quality Butcher's in Bishopthorpe Road celebrate 50 years as a family business

FIFTY years ago, young Yorkshire couple Phillip Kneafsey and Linda Morland spent their wedding fund on a small butcher's shop in Bishopthorpe Road.

The owner, George Brough, had died, and the couple put down their £200 savings and borrowed £1,000 from an unlikely source – Mrs Brough, the widow.

"She loaned us £1,000 to secure the business and also let us live above the shop and have use of all the furnishings," says Phillip, now 71.

There was one hitch, however: the couple weren't married and even in 1970 it was not acceptable to live together before marriage, said Phillip.

So he moved in with his granny, Annie, and from February 10, 1970, they ran the shop together until he married Linda a few weeks later.

Linda then moved to York to join the business, which they called M & K Quality Butchers (taken from their surname initials: Morland and Kneafsey).

Trading was different back then. For starters, there were eight other butcher's in the Bishopthorpe Road/Nunnery Lane area – today there are only a handful of traditional butchers left in York, so competition was fierce.

But Phillip stood out. He was young – just 21 – and had been working for an upmarket butcher's in Leeds, so came to York with lots of new ideas and energy.

One of the first things Phillip did on opening was stage a promotion. "I had a colour poster made offering a discount of four shillings in the pound for the first week – that's 20 per cent off, or 20p in the pound."

To mark the anniversary, the shop will be offering the same discount to customers for the week beginning February 10.

Other innovations were the wearing of aprons and hats and a shirt and tie: Phillip looked smart, and it's been a trademark look for the rest of his family, who have joined him in the business over the years.

Today, the day-to-day running is left to Phillip's sons Simon and Matthew, whose other halves Michaela and Natalie respectively are also in the business, as are Simon's children Ben and Charlotte.

Matthew says there is a key reason why the butcher's works so well: "The family get on! Me and Simon get on really well for two brothers, which helps make it a success."

Back in the early 70s, Phillip brought other innovations to the butcher's shop, such as cutting up meat and pricing it by the pound, enabling customers to know they were buying just what they needed and could afford.

There was a strict "no smoking" policy too – unusual for the time.

There was no refrigerated display cabinet, instead meat was presented on a marble slab in the window and double wrapped for customers.

"There was no cash register, just a drawer," recalls Phillip. "And no bacon slicer or cooked meat slicer. All were cut by hand. The scale was mechanical with brass weights."

Back then, they served hot pies – popular with passers-by on their way to work.

And they didn't stop with one shop. They branched out over the road, snapping up a rival butcher's following a retirement, turning it into a sheepskin shop which later became a vintage coffee lounge, run by Linda.

She said: "We didn't have lattes or hot chocolates back then. We did filter coffee and snacks and sandwiches. We had framed pictures of vintage cars all round the walls and served teas and coffees in stainless steel jugs. It was quite posh for its day."

On race days, if cafe customers got a bit troublesome, staff would ring a bell and one of the burly butchers from the shop opposite would come to sort out the problem, recalls Phillip.

When the couple had Simon and Matthew, they gave up the cafe, and concentrated on the original butcher's shop.

In 1980, the family moved to a farm just outside York where they raised a flock of sheep, providing a steady stream of local lamb for customers in the shop – something that continues today.

There have been challenges and set backs over the years including a fire at the premises and the BSE food scare and the foot and mouth epidemic, but the business has been able to weather each storm.

When Phillip and Linda started the business they had a motto printed on their bags: "Quality, service, civility at all time." It has stood the test of time and are principles that guide the business now, adds Matthew.

There are new challenges facing the butcher's today – particularly as people are cutting back on red meat consumption with the rise of vegetarian, vegan and flexitarian diets.

Matthew's answer has been to diversify. "We have a wholesale side where we sell to restaurants. As more members of the family have joined the business, we have taken on more work to provide an income for everybody."

Food trends have changed too. Instead of pies and joints of meat, people prefer burgers and sausages, and meat for barbecuing is popular, added Matthew.

Traceability is important too – customers want to know where their meat is coming from (M&K publicise this information in the shop).

Matthew says: "All we can do is move with the times." One advance on their radar is the use of technology in the food sector, specifically people using apps to order produce.

He said: "If people want to order a steak by Deliveroo maybe that is what the market will demand in a changing world."