We’re excited to introduce Richard, a skilled butcher and director of Woodhouse Butchery, a family-run business in Haywards Heath with a proud history of supporting UK farmers. In this interview, Richard reflects on the business’s legacy, their ethos of championing British produce, and a few local spots he and his wife Jessica love to visit.
With training at Smithfield College and experience in his family business and leading catering butchers, Richard offers expert advice on cuts, availability, and budgeting. His knowledge and passion ensure Woodhouse Butchery continues to deliver the finest quality meat, poultry, and game.
What do you love most about working in hospitality here in Sussex?
Having spent the bulk of my career working supplying London hospitality, it is exciting to now focus solely on Sussex. We are building a reputation as one of the best catering butchers in the area based on current merit rather than previous achievements. Whilst we have supplied the hospitality sector for decades it is only now that we are starting to get known in the local community. Having the business based in Haywards Heath alongside the relatively new retail shop is helping us to achieve this.
Can you walk us through your role at Woodhouse Butchery? What does a typical day look like for you?
A normal day for us starts with booking the overnight orders and preparing them for delivery. We offer a next working day delivery service with no minimum order amount, so most days have similar numbers of deliveries to manage and dispatch. Once the vans are away, the butchers will get the shop ready to open. We have a daily trade of regular retail customers who come to us knowing that they can get quality meat and poultry at competitive prices. Alongside the shop, the team will be busy preparing pre-orders from our catering customers.
Tell us about your team—what makes them special?
We are a close knit and strong team of butchers, drivers and ancillary staff, all of whom share a passion for butchery and good food. One of our butchers comes from a retail background but has learnt the ways of catering butchery, we have an ex-farmer who went through the level 2 apprenticeship at Plumpton and is now working on level 3. Two of the team were butchers in the past and who then left to pursue other careers but have been lured back. The youngest member of the team started as a Saturday assistant, and she has now left school and joined us as a full-time apprentice. All the team are focused on ensuring that all customers enjoy an excellent experience.
What services do you offer to hospitality venues in Brighton and across Sussex?
We offer a bespoke service to both hospitality and retail customers. We work closely with our customers taking time to discuss exactly what they need from us. We will help with menu choices and find ways to work around difficult price points or delivery times. We supply all meats, poultry, game and delicatessen, offering next working day delivery service – Monday to Saturday, with no minimum delivery charge.
Woodhouse Butchery has been around since 1888—that’s incredible! Can you share some of its history with us?
Founded by my Great Grandfather in 1888, T.S.J Woodhouse was originally based near Smithfield meat market in 1984 I joined my father and uncle as the fourth generation, and we moved to Kings Cross. We supplied high end restaurants and hotels in and around London’s West End and City. We also ventured outside of London supplying hotels as far as Brighton and Birmingham.
How has the business evolved in recent years?
In 2006 I chose to leave the company to gain experience with other catering butchers before relaunching the family business in Haywards Heath. Supplying the London hospitality business again until 2020 when we were severely hit by the pandemic. Facing an uncertain future with rising costs we decide to pull out of the London market so that we could focus purely on the Sussex hospitality sector. We also launched what has now become a successful retail shop.
What can you tell us about the produce you offer? How do your relationships with suppliers set you apart?
The produce that we offer is predominately UK sourced, much of it from Sussex, with our emphasis being on supporting UK farming. As a relatively small island, we love to work with produce from England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. We have worked with some of our suppliers since my great grandfather’s day, now we work with local farmers here in Sussex especially for Beef and Lamb. Our network of approved suppliers built over many years, means that we can be confident with the quality and provenance of the products that we offer our customers.
Which products are especially popular with your customers right now?
We are particularly proud of our Dry Aged local Beef and our our hand made sausages that we offer different flavours weekly. These sausages are a firm favourite among our retail customers, and they’re equally popular with our hospitality venues. For venues looking for something unique, we’re happy to collaborate and create a specialty sausage tailored to your needs.
For many independent restaurants in Brighton and Sussex, working with local suppliers is a big deal. What makes partnering with Woodhouse Butchery so beneficial for them?
The fact that we are local and focused solely on Sussex businesses. We offer a high level truly bespoke service to all our customers. We work very closely with the chefs; we are always available on the phone and are very happy to visit venues to discuss any requirements. We support all our customers closely and view our relationship as a partnership.
If a hospitality venue wanted to set up a trade account with you, how would that work?
Setting up a trade account couldn’t be easier. We like to have a face-to-face meeting with the client first to help us understand exactly what is required regarding specifications and delivery times. There is a simple form to complete and then we can arrange the first delivery.
How do you go about building new business connections? What’s unique about your approach?
We have a website and use social media, but most of our new business comes from word of mouth, both in catering and retail.
We offer a very personal bespoke service that focuses on the needs of the customer.
We work in partnership with the client to ensure that their needs are always met ensuring that the relationship lasts for many years.
Sustainability is a key focus these days. What steps are you taking to reduce your carbon footprint and protect the planet?
Sustainability is something that both Jessica and I feel very strongly about. This is why we promote UK farming as much as possible. We bring produce in from all over the UK and see little valve in bringing in similar products from outside. Beef, Pork, Lamb and a lot of Poultry is farmed here in the UK. It is important to remember that farmers only farm according to their demand within the marketplace. Our carbon footprint is something that we are constantly reviewing. All our deliveries are local so our emissions are as low as they can naturally be. We try to use recyclable or compostable packaging where possible and as new innovations become available; we embrace them.
The hospitality industry faces its fair share of challenges. How is Woodhouse Butchery adapting to the current landscape?
We are very aware of the current challenges facing hospitality as they have a knock-on effect to us. The key to survival is working closely with our partners to help each other as much as possible.
Communication is key to this, which is why we will never grow our business to the point where we lose touch with our customer’s needs so that we can adapt our offering in response.
In your opinion, what makes Brighton such an incredible place to do business?
For us Brighton represents an opportunity to build our business in a city that welcomes change, encourages growth and independence. Brighton is vibrant and exciting, it is a go to place for restaurants and venues, it is great to be working in this environment.
Where are your favourite places to eat or drink in Sussex? Can you name two and share why you love them?
Narrowing down to just two is almost impossible. Jessica and I try to make a point of visiting all our clients. This helps us to understand what they want from us. If rushed to name two favourites, I think for Sunday Roast we would have say Oak Barn in Burgess Hill (pictured below) and for lunch / dinner probably Burnt Orange in the Lanes. If you asked us where we would like to try next it would be Pearly Cow at 124 Guest house.
We have been supplying them since they opened, and the menu looks awesome.
What’s on the horizon for Woodhouse Butchery? Any exciting plans you can share?
We are very happy growing our prescence in Sussex and we are very proud to be supporting the BRAVO awards, sponsoring the Best Sunday Roast award. We know that Brighton and Sussex will be seeing a lot more of us over the next twelve months.
When you’re not working, how do you like to spend your time?
We try and lead active lives outside the business, we have two dogs who keep us busy, we also like to waterski, mountain bike and we have even been known to fall off the odd skateboard. Richard is an active member of the Brighton AcroYoga group and is always trying out new balances with willing volunteers.