Meet The Team

Vinnie Webb. Master Butcher

Vinnie has learned his craft the old fashioned way; through time and hands-on experience working with skilled family butchers.

His career began when he was 14 years old and took a Saturday job for pocket money as a ‘butchers boy’ in Barking, Essex, and since then he has moved on to work for leading supermarkets throughout the UK and Europe.

At Sandringham Foods he has returned to his roots but this time he’s the boss, with a small team at our butchers shop in West Newton.

Vinnie gets to work at 7 am and begins by checking the fridge and tallying up the orders that need to be sent out that day. He works closely with our Operations Manager, Mark Cooper, who organises the deliveries to local shops, hotels, restaurants and fulfilling all internet orders.

Sheep and pigs are delivered cut in half from the local abattoir, while the larger Red Poll cattle cut into quarters and are only delivered after they have been hanged in our cool room for 20 days, to enhance the meat’s tenderness and flavour.

Only when you see Vinnie at work, can you fully appreciate the skills of his craft; with a flurry of deft strokes and cuts he can effortlessly reduce a side of beef into a series of prime steaks and roasting joints in seemingly no time at all.

Vinnie takes great pride in his craft and uses the traditional oil-stone and steels to sharpen his blades. Only when his blades are sharp enough to shave with is Vinnie satisfied and he permanently has a bald patch on his forearms to prove it.

Although he has accumulated a wealth of knowledge in his 29 years in the trade, he doesn’t rest on his laurels and is constantly trying to improve his craft: “If anyone ever tells you they know everything about butchering, they are lying. I’m constantly refining and expanding my techniques everyday.”

He has the scars to prove his hard earned apprenticeship and one time was rushed to hospital with a near fatal injury. “You have to be constantly focussed on what you are doing, in the early days you make mistakes, but there is no room for error or a lapse in concentration in this trade.”

Cuts - Ideal for

• Fillet - The finest cut for tenderness and taste, whether fried, grilled or roasted
• Sirloin - Frying, grilling or roasting
• Rump - Quality steaks and roasts
• Silverside - Best slow roasted
• Topside - Very lean and fine grained meat for roasts
• Blade - Braising, stewing or as mince
• Brisket - A slow roast, braised or stewed
• Chuck - This cut is best braised, stewed or used or pie fillings
• Rib - Probably the best roasting joint
• Flank - Braising, stewing, mince
• Leg - Stewing, mince
• Shin - Braising, stewing or mince

Mark Cooper, Operations Manager

Mark’s family doesn’t have an agricultural background, but from a very early age he knew he was going to be a farmer.

Mark graduated from Wisbech Agricultural College and his first post didn’t take him down the normal arable crop route which is so widespread in Norfolk, instead he went to work on a lavender farm which was his first introduction to the Sandringham Estate.

A number of years later he was looking for a fresh challenge, and became operations manager for an asparagus grower, which also had connections with Sandringham.

So it seemed like a natural progression that after 15 years working in and around the Estate, he should come and work for us at Sandringham Foods, as our Operations Manager.

“What I love about farming is being outside and living in the environment, seeing the countryside as it constantly changes through the seasons.”

It’s not just nature he sees working on the Estate, he has often spotted the Queen out riding and the Duke of Edinburgh pops into our shop from time to time.

Although Mark is not directly working on the land anymore he is constantly out and about, liaising with all the members of our team to ensure our shops in Great Bircham and West Newton are stocked, and orders from hotels, restaurants and the internet are fulfilled.

Part of his daily routine is giving Vinnie Webb, our master butcher, all the latest orders, vac packing deliveries and developing the wholesale side of the business.

He also works closely with Tony our herdsman and is in touch several times a week to check the progress of our herd of Red Poll cattle. He is a passionate advocate of this rare breed: “Everything has to have a purpose and if this breed wasn’t used for beef production, it would simply cease to exist. I’m not from a marketing background and sales doesn’t come naturally to me, however working with the Red Poll makes it easy – it’s not just meat, I believe it is the highest quality, tastiest beef on the market.”

Tony Barratt. Livestock Farmer

Tony wasn’t born into a farming family although his father did work the land, as a drainage contractor in his home town of Market Rasen, Lincolnshire.

When he was a boy Tony used to help out on a nearby farm during the weekends and holidays, giving a hand with the milking and any other odd jobs that were required. It was here that he was first introduced to Red Poll cattle and set his mind on his future career.

Not having any land of his own, he had to start small, with just one cow, and earned a living wage by also working as an estate agent and an auctioneer. Over time he steadily grew his herd, acquired land and eventually turned his childhood ambition into a reality.

Today he works his tenant farm on the Sandringham Estate and has a herd of 300 cattle, 1,000 sheep and 50 pigs.

His attitude to farming is that “You should work with nature, not fight against it” and this can be seen in everything he does, from his selection of breeds to the rotation of crops and feeding. It’s a simple concept that Tony has used all his life, and has recently become more widely understood by consumers with the rise of the ‘organic’ labels.

‘Leys’ is the term used for crop rotation, alternating a field’s crops between corn, beans and grass for grazing. The result of this method of farming is that you don’t need to use herbicides, pesticides  and artifical fertilizers; the land builds its fertility back up naturally and the resulting grass and clover is rich in nutrients and Omega 3.

The same thinking is applied to rearing breeds that are naturally suited to this environment and its conditions. His flock of sheep do not grow wool, which leaves them vulnerable to fly strike and requires the trauma of shearing, instead he uses a breed that has hair, which molts naturally. They are also more resistant to pests and are better mothers than other popular breeds, which means they need the minimum amount of human interference.

By working patiently with nature and in harmony with the seasons, Tony gives all his animals the most natural, healthy and content lives possible.