2017 EXTRA MILE AWARD

In association with Scotch Butchers Club
This category is for the trainee who has “gone the extra mile” in their own progression, new product development, customer service which has had a positive impact on the business they work in.

Winner: Joseph Paterson, W F Stark, Buckhaven

Customer service – Joe is very polite and nothing is too much trouble for him. He will offer to carry messages out to the car and he always has a smile for you when you come in.
Jane Smith

I nominated Joe because he has a good personality, good to work with and good with customers. He just gets on with his work he never moans. I miss when he is not at work, when he is on holiday as you miss his cheeky answers when you are chatting. All I can say is that he is just a saint as he just knuckles down at his work. We all work together as a team.
Lorraine Horsburgh

I have been a customer of Stark’s Butchers for many years – before Amos and the current team took over the business. The standard is very high with excellent quality produce throughout.

Joe is very polite and nothing is too much trouble. He is someone who is a credit to both Starks and the industry. He is very efficient, always on hand to offer advice and even take the shopping out to the car. He is someone who is capable of running and maintaining a personal service from start to finish. As a business owner, people like Joe are a definite great asset to the company and keeping this to a bespoke service is something which has been forgotten with many industries.

This is what makes both Stark’s and Joe a very bespoke service with great attention to customer satisfaction due to a dedicated team.
Elizabeth McAdam

Joe has been an employee for more than 10 years and has progressed through the ranks in that period. He is reliable and dedicated to his work and the Level 3 Modern Apprentice course.
The Extra Mile Award would highlight the fine details and hard work he has done.
Amos Smith

Joe is very helpful and hard working. He goes the extra mile if you need anything and can’t get to the shop he brings it my door for me. His pies are brilliant (all kinds). I like my chopped pork thin cut and he does that for me – that’s what you call great service!
Thomas Scott

Joe is an absolute star! He gets my butcher meat for me when I can’t get to the shops and their pies are really brilliant – all kinds to try and I recommend them to anybody to try them all. All in all the shop and the people in it are great!
Sandra Paterson

Joseph is a well-respected part of the community. He is polite to all customers young and old. If I need anything I just need to phone Joseph and he will bring it to me after his work. Even on his day off he will oblige me. He teaches football to Scouts and looks after his wife and three children too. He also visits his mother every night as she doesn’t keep well. So I would love to see Joseph get an award as he is a pillar of strength to everybody. Where he finds time to himself has me baffled. However his good deeds are much appreciated.
Mrs A Craig

Finalist: Jillian Edward, Dunnabie Farm Shop, Annan

Jillian’s contracted hours are 8am to 3pm but she always exceeds these hours, sometimes coming back to the shop after collecting her daughter from school to lend a hand if we are busy.

Jillian came up with a really good idea for the Annan ROM window dressing. She designed it all in her own time, the dressed the window for all her hard work we won a 2nd place overall and the local nursery voted us 1st place.

Jillian also had the bright idea to write on the chill walls at Christmas where everyone’s order was, so we could just go straight to them. A very innovative idea that made our life so much easier in the mad rush at that time of year.

All the customers get on well with Jillian and ask where is on her days off. She knows most of them by first name. In the two years she has worked at Dunnabie she has been a godsend, even getting her family to help out as well.

Nominated by Jo Birtwistle

Finalist: Linsey McCafferty, William McCafferty, Forth

I am delighted to have this opportunity to highlight Linsey’s skills by nominating her for the Extra Mile Award.

Linsey always has a welcoming smile and kind words for her customers. She is well liked by everyone and she makes it a real pleasure to shop with our local butcher.

On the days when “I can’t decide” she is able to guide me to some best buys and is patient whilst I consider what to choose from the exciting displays which she helps to create.

She is quick to tell of new ideas in their pre-prepared items and she can relate the recipe to the best way of cooking them. Her influence on the business is evident and she is a credit to her boss.

I wish her every success, she certainly deserves it.

Nominated by Catherine Whyte

Finalist: James Winters, The Cross Butchers, Kilsyth

James joined us at the Cross Butchers, Kilsyth in January 2016 as a fresh-faced and enthusiastic trainee. In the course of his training with us he has demonstrated enthusiasm in his work, undertaking his duties with great responsibility and with the attitude that “if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well”. James’s positive attitude to his work and training are exemplified in his customer care. Always willing to “go the extra mile” whilst serving a customer, James ensure the customer has his full attention, engaging with them so that there can be no doubt that they know that they are important to him, and to the business.

When not directly engaged with our valued customers, James has shown great promise in the development of new products and the trialling of new flavours in existing products. James’s innovation has contributed to the awards our business has collected for our steak pies and he continues to progress his creative ideas with our range of lamb products.

So, great customer care and the gift of understanding flavours in the development of products and further development of products might well seem like a good job well done. but for James, this is his “day to day” practice (and the understanding of just how important this is underpins every task). James, in more recent times, is developing skills in the areas of business management. moving away from the meat and spending a bit more time with pen and paper.

It would be fair to say that this succinct resume of James time with us at The Cross Butchers has been a very successful and rewarding period of time (for us and hopefully also for him). All of the above is a close representation of a young man who has demonstrated that he can learn new skills and develop them to further both his own future and the future of our business (and in very recent days, all done whilst patiently awaiting the arrival of a new generation of Winters).

Nominated by John Fleming

• - - 2017 LEVEL 3 MODERN APPRENTICE OF THE YEAR