Long Compton abattoir

[Macsky]

Is anyone here involved in this?

Save Long Compton Abattoir | Help us save the abattoir

longcomptonabattoir.co.uk

 

[sticky]

I’m not involved but I’ve used them for 20 odd years.

 

[Henarar]

I’m not involved but I’ve used them for 20 odd years.

Are they not relocating then ?

 

[sticky]

I’m afraid I don’t know.
I do know that the person/people who own the business don’t own the site but they have spent an awful lot of money keeping up with red tape.
@Two Tone is just up the road from them, he might have heard something.

 

[Two Tone]

I’m afraid I don’t know.
I do know that the person/people who own the business don’t own the site but they have spent an awful lot of money keeping up with red tape.
@Two Tone is just up the road from them, he might have heard something.

What I have heard is that the site had PP for housing.
However, that if enough people can get together to buy it from the existing owner, it can be kept as an abattoir.

It is a very well used small abattoir in this area that will be sorely missed.

 

[Henarar]

What I have heard is that the site had PP for housing.
However, that if enough people can get together to buy it from the existing owner, it can be kept as an abattoir.

It is a very well used small abattoir in this area that will be sorely missed.

Clare heard that they were relocating but from the OP it would seem not

 

[edn]

The owner of the site does not want to build houses there but the abattoir is struggling to keep up with the modern legislation so can’t really keep functioning as an abattoir as it is- the upgrading of infrastructure will be a struggle any new owners are going to have to deal with.
It’s a brilliant abattoir, very good animal welfare but not all bright and shiny metal like I guess is wanted these days.

 

[sticky]

Clare heard that they were relocating

Sadly I can’t see anyone giving pp for a new abattoir to be built.

 

[onesiedale]

what I can't understand is the business logic of buying a business on a site at mkt value for housing development.
Why not just set up somewhere else?

 

[Henarar]

The owner of the site does not want to build houses there but the abattoir is struggling to keep up with the modern legislation so can’t really keep functioning as an abattoir as it is- the upgrading of infrastructure will be a struggle any new owners are going to have to deal with.
It’s a brilliant abattoir, very good animal welfare but not all bright and shiny metal like I guess is wanted these days.

Can they not get any of these SFI grants ?

 

[edn]

Can they not get any of these SFI grants ?

The small abattoir funding? When I spoke to them pre Christmas they were too big and handled too much livestock for that- which is laughable when you consider how small an abattoir it is.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

How far away is the next nearest abattoir that would be able to offer the same service?

We have lost all our cattle abattoir capacity within 2 hours, still have one sheep and pig abattoir within an hour.

The middle to long term looks bleak for what are left and I doubt there will be any left in the South East within 5 years.

Trying to save Long Compton if there are other nearby abattoirs will be futile as the numbers of stock remaining continue to decline. Yes the over regulation plays a part in destroying these and wearing down the owners but it will need a good team to manage it and be aware of the amount of bad payers there can be.

 

[neilo]

what I can't understand is the business logic of buying a business on a site at mkt value for housing development.
Why not just set up somewhere else?

^this. The site is in the middle of a village and a prime location for (expensive) housing. Unless it’s changed recently, the owner of the site doesn’t operate the abattoir (or the butcher shops he used to run), but leases them out. The abattoir operator must be approaching retirement age, and had about had enough the last time I was there (12 years ago), and would rather spend time on his canal boat iirc.
Apologies if anything has changed since then that I’m not aware of.

There is no reason that a similar sized abattoir operation couldn’t be set up on a local farm site, well out of the village, for less than the sum being collected by this campaign. There is no reason that it has to carry on at a site with poor road access, just because it’s always been there.
I would suggest that setting up on a farm somewhere would allow the facilities and access to be far better, as well as allowing for any future expansion, which is very much not an option at the current site.

 

[sticky]

would rather spend time on his canal boat iirc.

He packed in years ago to do that.

 

[Oliveau]

Support this if you çan chaps. I have expressed interest in taking a share.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

^this. The site is in the middle of a village and a prime location for (expensive) housing. Unless it’s changed recently, the owner of the site doesn’t operate the abattoir (or the butcher shops he used to run), but leases them out. The abattoir operator must be approaching retirement age, and had about had enough the last time I was there (12 years ago), and would rather spend time on his canal boat iirc.
Apologies if anything has changed since then that I’m not aware of.

There is no reason that a similar sized abattoir operation couldn’t be set up on a local farm site, well out of the village, for less than the sum being collected by this campaign. There is no reason that it has to carry on at a site with poor road access, just because it’s always been there.
I would suggest that setting up on a farm somewhere would allow the facilities and access to be far better, as well as allowing for any future expansion, which is very much not an option at the current site.

This is a classic situation for many small abattoirs sitting in urban sites on very high land value for development.

Firstly the definition of small is I believe less than 5,000 units a year, these are the only ones that have been eligible for the government £4 million pound in grants.
These are nearly all getting old and run by farmer/butchers and have high running costs which are becoming increasingly difficult to run profitably and most are multi species.

Then there are the next size up, which I presume is like Long Compton that is killing for a number of outlets and will be doing some wholesaling. These tend to be close to areas of high population and are often more specialised, all sheep or all cattle with some killing pigs on one day a week.

@neilo makes a valid point about investing in a new site that is well outside of the Village and some of us have looked at this very option. The main stumbling block to this is getting Planning Permission. Without some Government support to ensure any site that is suitable can be given PP then the cost and time taken to get this could cost half of any money needed and the time taken to get it up and running could be years.
The cost of a new build site will be millions, which will need deep pockets to set up and then there is the issue of who will run it.

Farmer groups do not have a good record of running abattoirs or any business.

Something does have to be done and a few individuals are lobbying to do this but without a national strategy it is unlikely anything will ever happen until nearly all smaller abattoirs are gone.
Looking at where Long Compton sits, I would guess there are other abattoirs that will be keen to take on the existing business to make them more profitable in the short term.

 

[flinty123]

Buying an abattoir is the simple bit. Unless abattoirs are highly automated, it's near enough impossible to find staff. For automation to work efficiently, there needs to be a high throughput of animals.

Small abattoirs are outdated unfortunately, it's similar to a local hardware shop competing with Screwfix. Labour costs per animal are just too high on small throughput numbers.

 

[delilah]

I would imagine they are already, but the people looking to do this should discuss their plans with the Abattoir Sector Group.

https://abattoirsectorgroup.org/

 

[ringi]

There is no reason that a similar sized abattoir operation couldn’t be set up on a local farm site, well out of the village, for less than the sum being collected by this campaign. There is no reason that it has to carry on at a site with poor road access, just because it’s always been there

If we lived in a county with a sensible planning system that would be the case, but the cost of creating the 1001 documents for a planning application and then the risk that a local councillor candidate will see blocking it as an election winning fasttrack makes me question if it is possible.

 

[Farmerboy1971]

How about a mobile abattoir operating at sites along the M40 corridor? There is a real chance we will have one operating by October this year!