Blenheim butcher a cut above in her field

Steph Busch grew up as a city girl. Unlike her peers from the outskirts of Blenheim to the outer reaches of Marlborough, she was not raised alongside chickens, cows, lambs or pigs. She worked at KFC after college, spent six months in a call centre, then became a barista.

So, when Steph first stepped into the butchery at PAK’nSAVE Blenheim, she crossed the threshold of a new frontier. She did so at one of the busiest times of the year, the week before Christmas, and was set up packing meat.

Six years later, having completed an apprenticeship, Steph is one of five butchers plus an apprentice at the Westwood supermarket. The environment is “fast-paced, always busy”, she said, the way she likes it.

Asked to estimate the volume of meat she handles in a day, Steph replied: “I can’t even put a number on it. Lots and lots.”

She has found work and a workplace she loves at a turning point for her profession. Renwick Meat Market & Bakery closed its butchery on 12 June. Two months earlier, Woolworth shuttered butcheries in South Island stores, as it previously did across North Island, in favour of prepackaged meats.

At PAK’nSAVE Blenheim, the knives continue chopping, trimming and carving. The location’s 200 employees selected the butchery as their market’s department of the year.

At the tip of the operation rises Steph. Cutting to the chase, so to speak, butchery manager Daniel Holland reserves his highest praise for her.

“I have sent three apprentices through during my time as boss, and she’s the best one – easy,” he stated. “And I don’t say that lightly; she’s the best.”

Growth within
Steph felt at home right away. She adjusted quickly to the pace of packing, and in the following year, she approached her first manager about doing more in the butchery. He and a couple of apprentices taught her sausage-making, which “became my job for a really long time”.

About three years ago, management approached Steph with the prospect of an apprenticeship through Foodstuffs South Island Cooperative, with over 200 stores.

Human resources manager Laurel Carre explained that her store’s owners, Mark Elkington and Andrea Boock, “are always keen to grow the team, and they’re always proud to see that transition in people.”

Steph had impressed not only with her abilities but also her attitude. Laurel describes her as “really lovely, the way she is [as a person] and the way she is with her team members. She’s not afraid to come forward with ideas and share them.”

She appreciated her time as an apprentice – “As an older learner, not straight out of school, it was an amazing opportunity,” Steph said, “so much fun” – and paid it forward by speaking with students at the Future of Work career expo on 12 June.