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Sometime in the near future, Melanie Bolt will be stocking the freezer at Pineview Farms Butcher Shop for the last time.
She’s not sure when that will happen — it depends on inventory and demand — but it will happen. Then she and her husband, Kevin, exited the retail food supply business for the first time in 26 years.
She said there was no reason for the butcher’s decision to hang up his apron.
“We have to do some strategic planning. Are we going to get bigger? Are we going to get smaller? What is our succession plan? What does our workforce look like? What is the industry, the economy and all these things? Something like that,” she said.
“It’s not any one thing that comes together. But at the end of the day, we look at our sustainability and what works for us personally as well.”
For Boldt, the closure may come a little early, but Jim Bence of Saskatchewan Hospitality said their decision reflects larger trends in the industry.
“It’s indicative of what’s happening across the industry, especially in food and beverage,” Bence said.
“So whether you’re a restaurant or a vendor, for people in the industry today, revenue and casualties are really being squeezed.”
Bence said restaurants and vendors are trying to stay profitable in a post-pandemic world. Costs are rising, skilled labor is at a premium, and competition for consumer dollars is fierce.
“It’s very weak. So when anything goes up – maybe the price of a box of lettuce – it has a direct impact on how much money these people can make,” he said.
“And then you’ve got 15-hour days, seven days a week. So the hours are long and there’s no staff there to give you some relief. A lot of our guys are just, they’re just really pulled out.”
long term buyer
Andy Yuen of Odd Couple in Saskatoon is a long-time buyer of Pine View Farms. He has other vendors he could use, but said Pine View fills a very specific niche.
“We use their products whenever possible. Not all of our meat comes from them. We have other suppliers, but we do think – especially for me – I think their chicken and beef products are better than the Most other beef and chicken options we can get to Saskatchewan are superior,” he said.
“It’s all very natural.”
Melanie said leaving retail should bring the couple back to square one. Together with Kevin’s parents, they started growing grain in the late 1990s. To expand, they purchased existing land, which included a small slaughterhouse and chicken coop, and began developing “branded niche products.”
Now, they will sell off their existing stock and return to the farm to decide their future.
“We do plan to continue living on our farm. We love it here, and we’re not ready to leave,” she said.
“We’re going to have a few months to figure out who we are and not just chicken farmers and butchers.”
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