WHEN Courtney Fewster embarked on her career in agriculture, she never imagined she would one day be running the butcher shop her grandfather built more than 30 years ago in Gingin.
Courtney’s pop Colin, and his two brothers David and Johnny built and ran the local butcher shop in the mid 1980s and after several ownership changes Gingin Premium Meats is back in the Fewster family, under the management of Courtney and her father Wayne.
“I really enjoy the fact that the shop has involved three generations,” Courtney said.
“Pop and his brothers built all of the railing and did all of the welding, which has lasted a long time and is still pretty sturdy.
“Pop is still fairly involved, he still comes in most days and makes morning tea for us.”
Courtney’s passion for livestock stems from her childhood growing up as one of four children on the Fewsters’ family cattle farm at Beermullah.
A mob of 300 breeding cattle, a few sheep and a small amount of crop is run on the 1000 hectare property, 20 kilometres north of Gingin.
“I guess I was a bit of a farm kid, I absolutely loved the farm,” Courtney said.
At 14, Courtney left the family property to begin boarding school at St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School in Perth.
“I got extremely homesick and as much as I appreciate now the cost that mum and dad paid for me to go there, it was a bit of a tough time,” she said.
“I guess St Mary’s cemented in me that I would eventually want to find a career in something that was fairly agriculturally based.”
After completing high school with impressive results, Courtney commenced an animal science degree at Murdoch University and in 2012, graduated with honours.
Following a brief move interstate and 18 months working in Perth, she decided it was time to return to her farming roots.
“I approached dad one day very nervously and said why don’t we sell our own beef?” she said.
“I believed that we had some great cattle, so why not make the most of that?
“Dad was keen on the idea but probably smarter than me in that he knew that there would be a substantial cost associated with that.
“If we wanted to operate the business on-farm it would involve cool rooms and refrigerated transport, freezers, a boning room and a processing facility.
“All of these combined led to one giant start-up cost and unfortunately we just couldn’t make the figures work.”
However, an opportunity arose in August 2014, when the Gingin butcher shop became available for lease.
“Whether it was fate or just pure luck, at the time the little butcher shop in Gingin was up for lease and dad basically said if you want to do this this, this is our opportunity,’’ she said.
“Although it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, we bit the bullet and by the end of the month I had resigned from my office job in Perth and I had moved home.”
Almost three years on from establishing their business, the Fewsters haven’t looked back.
The family manage the operation from paddock to plate, with most of the beef sold at Gingin Premium Meats made up of the Fewster’s Black Angus and Murray Grey herd.
The cattle are grass and grain fed in the open paddocks of their Beermullah property, depending on demand and seasonal conditions.
Much of the other produce is sourced locally, and prepared, presented and sold by a team of two butchers, an apprentice butcher and two customer service staff.
Courtney’s partner James also supports the business.
The couple has an 18-month-old daughter Sage.
Gingin Premium Meats works closely with Gingin Meatworks to provide private meat processing services for producers.
“About 80 per cent of our bulk customers are farmers that want to kill their own beef or lambs,” Courtney said.
“They get booked in at the abattoir and they send us a weekly truck.
“We’re lucky enough to be able to hang the beef for as long as need be.
“Without them (Gingin Meatworks) the private processing side of the business probably wouldn’t be taking off like it has.”
For Courtney, the most rewarding part of the business has been managing livestock from paddock to plate.
“My passion is the beef and lamb, the private processing and also being able to sell our own meat,’’ she said.
“Certainly my favourite part is the beef side of things and fine-tuning the animal so that it suits the shop best.
“Also experimenting with hang time, dark cutting and grain versus grass fed beef.
“That’s probably what I studied most at uni and what I loved about uni, so that’s been nice that a few of those little things have filtered through the business.”
Setting up the business has come with its hurdles, and according to Courtney competition from Coles and Woolworths had been a significant challenge.
She said support from the local community had allowed the business to remain competitive.
“We’ve been lucky in that the community we live in is super supportive and pretty switched-on as far as the quality of meat goes.
“I think because a lot of them are cattle and sheep farmers, they know what they’re getting when they come here versus what they’re getting when they do a Coles order,” she said.
“I think once customers are in the door they think wow, this is reasonably priced, the sausages are great and it’s good quality meat so I think just getting people into the habit of coming in is probably the biggest challenge.”
Courtney shared her business experience with 160 people at the West Midlands Group’s 2017 Women, Wellbeing and Wine event at Dandaragan last week.
The 26-year-old was one of three guest speakers at the event who shared advice about running a successful enterprise.
She said support from James, her family and the local community had allowed the business to succeed.
“Probably number one is to make sure that you’ve got the support behind you, whether it’s family or colleagues or friends,” Courtney said.
“Also, I guess like in any other business, I have strengths and weaknesses and by my own admission I need to work on those weaknesses.
“I didn’t study business, we just touched on it at university, but it is certainly something I wish we had worked on.
“In hindsight I would have loved to have more of a business plan, so certainly setting yourself up and making sure you’ve done the research I think is probably the key.”
