High Street butcher on the move
| Published: 2nd August 2007 12:24 |
Stan Hems in his family butchers shop
Johnstans, the family butchers shop in the High Street, is on the move after more than 25 years.
But owner Stan Hems says he has no plans to leave Kings Heath and is investigating several other shop locations in the area.
"We've been in the High Street for over fifty years in total and we have a wonderful lot of loyal customers. We won't desert them," he says.
When 65 year-old Stan first started trading as a butcher there were at least 20 people selling meat in the High Street. Now he's the last survivor standing up to the supermarkets.
"We make our own sausages, black pudding, pies and cooked meats on the premises. We offer a personal service, know our customers and are almost social workers to some - a supermarket can't do that," he says.
Stan says what attracted him into the trade in the first place was the fact that he likes meeting people.
He first started work in a butchers shop when he was just eight years old. He tells how he used to cycle to the shop in all weathers, arriving at six o'clock in the morning for a two-hour shift before lessons. Then when the school bell rang, he rode back to the meat counter for another few hours work - sometimes until 7pm.
When Stan left school his father wanted him to be an apprentice toolmaker at Lucas, but he says that was just too dirty and smelly. Instead he took a job offer from the shop where he had worked as a lad and has been in the retail trade ever since.
His first shop was a hairdresser's in Heathfield Road - a business he set up for his wife. His son now takes day-to-day charge of the butchers. Stan takes care of a bigger property portfolio, including a gallery, and busies himself with community activities.
"I live for the community," he says. "I've been a local councillor, player manager of a local football team and I just love to help out my customers."
