EXECUTIVE PROFILE


WILLIAM LLOYD WILLIAMS MBE


William Lloyd Williams is a Machynlleth man. He is also a third-generation butcher and slaughterman, Policy Director of National Craft Butchers, winner of numerous awards, husband, father, and MBE. But most of all, he’s a Machynlleth man. In his words, ‘I’m like a stick of rock. Cut me in half and I’ll have Machynlleth running right through me.’


It’s an important point to make. William’s hometown and everything it means to him - family, community and strength, is inextricably woven through the fabric of his life.


Growing up on the family farm his introduction to the meat industry came early. As a six-year-old his job was to crawl under the hanging carcases in his father’s abattoir at the end of the day to switch the lights off!


The ‘all hands-on deck’ approach of his father prepared William well for the years ahead. Despite being a talented footballer and having secured a college place in Cardiff to train as a PE teacher, when the family faced tough times he didn’t hesitate. Borrowing money for the first time in his life, at just nineteen years of age William and his father took ownership of the business and set up’ William Lloyd Williams and Son’ butchers in 1979. And this is the business he still runs today, with his abattoir just across the road, having weathered the storms of BSE, Foot and Mouth, recession and now the COVID- 19 pandemic.


In some ways William believes that crises like BSE and COVID may have actually helped his business,


‘It (BSE) started people thinking about provenance for the first time. It took tragedy to make people realise that quality meat was right on their doorstep. I thought, ‘tell your customers what they need to know and they will support you’ and they did.’


It was in the late 1980’s that William hit upon a simple idea that has become a mainstay of his business ever since. He introduced ‘This Week’s Livestock Producers’ list and displayed it prominently in his shop window. This has, and continues to, reassure customers that the meat they are buying comes from local farmers known to the community. It also led to him winning ‘Food Producer of the Year’ in Country Life magazine in 2003.


Achieving national recognition was a proud moment not just for the kudos it gave his business. More importantly to William was the fact that it brought people into the town, spending money at other local businesses. This was, in his view, the real reward.


THE CAMPAIGN FOR LOCAL ABATTOIRS


William owns and runs the last surviving abattoir in Montgomeryshire. Originally there were eight, all serving local famers and butchers. But most closed in the 70’s when ‘the men from the Ministry moved in’ threatening to bury them in red tape and mountains of debt for changes to their businesses they neither wanted nor needed.


For those that know William it will come as no surprise that he ‘dug his heels in’, obstinately overcoming every obstacle put in his path. But the experience had a lasting effect on him and explains his commitment to the Campaign for Local Abattoirs.


He understands more than most the central role small abattoirs play in the local economy and is concerned for the future, given that the average age of an abattoir owner in the UK is sixty-eight.


‘My ambition is to make the job appealing to young people’.


A founder member of the Abattoir Sector Group, William is determined to play his part in bringing about ‘fit for purpose’ regulation for small abattoirs, pointing out that both operator and regulator want the same thing, safe food.


He’s encouraged by the progress of the campaign thus far and feels the Abattoir Sector Group has the people in place to make a real difference,


‘I’d like to praise the new Abattoir Sector Group. They are a bunch of professional and dedicated people united behind a single intent – that is to ensure small abattoirs not only survive but thrive.’


CRAFT BUTCHER MAY/JUNE 2021| 27


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