Maker Spotlight: Downland Produce

Melksham’s Downland Produce specialise in fresh, local meat – reared on farms just a few miles away. Their commitment to quality has led them to prestigious London markets and beyond.

We met up with managing director Chris Webber to learn more about Downland Produce’s growth in recent years and just what makes Wiltshire produce so special. 

Tell us more about your journey with butchery and with Downland Produce – how did you get involved? 

I worked in the fruit and veg department at an independent supermarket when I was at sixth form, and the butchery department needed an extra pair of hands at Christmas – someone who was in physical condition to lift the carcasses, that kind of thing. I’m quite a practical hands-on person and I found it really interesting. I’ve always had a love of cooking, too, so butchery felt like a natural extension of that creative process. 

About eight years ago, I was working as an advisor for butcheries, and the director of what was then Downland Pigs approached me as he was retiring. He asked if I wanted to try and continue the business and grow it further, so we rebranded to Downland Produce to expand our product range, and it’s gone from strength to strength. 

Aside from rebranding and growing the product range, how have you taken the business from that place to where it is now?

We’ve been going to various farmers’ markets in London for years now, and they’ve been a great window for our business both in terms of commercial customers and home cooks. The markets really help us showcase the quality and provenance of the product. It’s quite interesting speaking to the customers there who aren’t so familiar with Wiltshire as a county and the great food and drink that comes from here. 

It’s also spurred us on to grow our presence here in Wiltshire. When I first took on the business, a higher percentage of our sales actually came from London and that seemed to be the wrong way round for me, so we’ve put a lot of focus into being more visible in Wiltshire and showing local people the quality of our produce. 

Lots of your produce comes from farms that are quite close to you, so what do you look for when you’re taking a new supplier on board? 

We’re really interested in their story and their passion, because you can often see that dedication in the end product. If you take beef for example, we’re looking for animals that are nicely marbled and finished, so it’s got weight in the right areas – when that happens, you can really understand the passion and care the food producer had for that particular animal, and that the animal had the best life it possibly could. 

Animal welfare is of utmost importance, as well as the full transparency and traceability of the product. That’s what all our customers are looking for. 

Do you work with small local farms as well as those larger farms?

Absolutely – there’s a gentleman in Semington who we butcher privately for a few times a year, who reached out to us about some Dexter beef that he wanted to sell to a wider audience. We’re trying to reach out to lots of local producers and farmers like this who have interesting breeds or exceptional quality animals that we can create special products around, and the Dexter boxes have been flying off the shelf. 

We always want to maximise the value from any animal, too – this is a creature’s life as part of a farmer’s livelihood, so we want to make sure they get a really fair deal and that’s always been a big part of butchery for me. 

How many local farms do you work with?

We consistently get our pork products from West End Farms near Devizes, and beef and lamb from Wiltshire Agricultural College in Lackham. We’ve been working with both places for many years. We have around 20–30 small holdings that we work with every year, and we also supply farms with private butchery – so preparing their meat for either personal consumption or sale in their small farm shops. 

But we’re starting to feature more of these farms through our website, showcasing the quality of their product through the strength of our brand. Like the Wiltshire Marque highlights us, we try and highlight the farmers rearing these animals. 

You launched your new website just over a year ago now – how have you found business since?

It’s been incredible, we’ve seen sales increase year on year, and a lot of it is down to customers being able to see the quality in the product and the options available. We’re currently working on opening up more customisation for orders – so for example, you could buy half a lamb and choose to have it butchered however you like. When it comes to the pork, you could choose to have it cured into Wiltshire ham, gammon or bacon. That’s available on the website now and we’re excited to see how our commercial customers find it. 

You get a lot of sales from London, but has the website opened up trade around the country? 

We offer free delivery to local residents within certain postcode areas on Tuesdays and Fridays, so we do get quite a lot of orders from the local area. But as we offer courier delivery, we also get lots of orders from across the UK – we sent some meat up to Scotland recently, and we get particularly commercial orders from around the country. 

What’s your most popular product range?

I’d say the beef and the pork – and of course, our pork has always been a huge part of the business’s history. Sausages, dry cured bacon, and the general pork cuts like pork belly, roast pork joints and gammon always go down well. 

The quality of the beef from Lackham is incredible, too, and that’s really popular as a result, especially the meat packs and bundles. 

Apart from the markets and the website, where else can people find Downland Produce meats?

We’re in a few village stores around the county, as well as delis and cheese shops, plus a few cafes and restaurants that sell local produce as well. We’re looking to get involved in more markets and events across Wiltshire and the South West, so we’re always interested to hear from people setting those up. 

What does being part of a scheme like the Wiltshire Marque mean to you?

The big thing is that our goals are aligned – the Wiltshire Marque is putting the spotlight onto Wiltshire food and Wiltshire produce, and we’re doing the same when it comes to our products. We want to tell the story of where your food comes from and we’re proud to represent Wiltshire. 

Just like the Wiltshire Marque is doing, we want to support the county’s reputation and growth – it’s a beautiful place and we want to showcase the best of it. 

Check out the Downland Produce website and view their wide range of products, and keep up to date with their latest offers and bundles on Facebook and Instagram. 

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