Award-winning family butchers has already begun planning celebrations for impressive 100 year milestone
Planning is already underway for this award-winning family butchers as it approaches its impressive 100 year milestone in Northampton.
Sauls of Spratton, now located at Smiths Farm Shop in Brampton Lane, has been a well-established part of the town for 99 years.
The business has been run by the Saul family since 1926 and originally traded from the village butchers in Spratton, before moving just a couple of miles down the road to where they currently operate.
The business’ bakehouse, where they make all their homemade goodies, remains in the village – allowing the team to offer both online ordering and home deliveries.
Sauls of Spratton make their own sausages, pork pies, pates and potted beef, sausage rolls, cornish pasties and ready meals, following traditional family recipes using the freshest ingredients.
Their meat is sourced from a small selection of trusted wholesalers and local farms, before it is expertly butchered by the Sauls team.
Having won a number of prestigious awards, being known for selling pork rolls at Saints for around three decades, and catering for national events with their trailers and vintage vans, the family business continues to thrive.
The three directors are currently Emma Price, her husband Mark Price and her father Chris Saul.
They are the fourth generation of family members to take over, and it was Emma’s grandad’s uncle who first opened the butchers almost a century ago.
Emma first got involved at around the age of 15, when she and her sister were roped into helping. More than three decades later, Emma is fully immersed in the family business.
Emma told the Chronicle & Echo that the family is already working out plans for their centenary celebration in 2026, in which they hope to mark the milestone across the entire year. A party will definitely form part of that.
When asked what she believes has been key to the success of Sauls of Spratton over the past 99 years, Emma said: “It’s the loyalty of our customers and we’re very grateful to them.
“We see the same faces each week and that keeps any small business going. In the current climate, you’ve got to be able to count on people making the effort to shop local and small.”
Customers appreciate that the team handmakes a lot of their products, which have decades of history behind them, and they are constantly trying out new ideas and recipes.
“Barbecue season is great for us,” said Emma. “The different marinades and flavours keep our counter looking good.”
Emma was asked what she believes sets the family-run butchers apart from others offering similar products and services across the county.
She said: “We’re all trying our best and I have admiration for all butchers at the moment, it’s not an easy business. We’re all trying to do something different to the supermarkets and add a personal touch.
“We have our family recipes. Our pork pie recipe was handed down from my granny, and the same recipe has been used for our sausages for 60 to 70 years. They all have history.”
The team believes times have remained tough since the pandemic and Emma said: “Hats off to anyone running a small business. Costs are spiralling and we’ve diversified with catering, which has been a real success and kept us going.”
This began with Chris offering catering for weddings, parties and events, and then progressed to providing pork rolls at Saints matches.
Mark now runs the catering, which has seen their trailers at Olympic events, the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and the London Marathon, just to name a few. The family now has an extra two new catering trailers to take on more jobs moving forward.
Emma urged customers to keep an eye out on their Facebook and Instagram pages for special offers on their monthly special meat boxes. Their online shop also remains open for business and local deliveries.