The Yorkshire butcher using TikTok to lure back 'lost generation' of customers under 40 who don't know how to shop for meat

It’s certainly working in terms of views and while a million customers are surely not going to rock up together in little Wadworth, between Doncaster and Scunthorpe, any time soon Matt said it has been having the desired effect on local people in his area. He is now reaching his target bracket of those between 20-40 years of age with young families.

“Through no fault of their own the younger generations have not been shown, or had the experience of, what it is like to come into a butcher’s shop and ask for meat and it’s like many can feel daunted because of it.

“Myself and my brothers put out a 12 Days of Christmas series of short videos as bit of fun and we found people were looking forward to watching them each day. It was my sister, who runs all our social media who said why didn’t we do it for a lot longer? I’m just the face.

“We’re doing it to educate people and because we don’t want it to be either a daunting and intimidating experience for say a 25-30 year old lad or lass coming into a butcher’s shop for the first time and not knowing what they’re asking for. In the past all they’ve maybe ever done is bought meat off a shelf in a plastic bag.

One of Matt’s videos in January showed him holding a tray of four chicken kievs.

“I try to show what can feed a young family of four people during the week or say a joint of beef that’s 1.2 kilos for a Sunday dinner. It’s just about building relationships with customers again, the generation that was lost (to supermarkets).

“Some come through and say I want your mince, your best mince. The thing is that in a butcher’s shop you don’t need to ask for it, because all we sell is good mince. All lean, all good for you.

“On the videos I show people where the different cuts of meat come from, where you get the sirloin from.

“TikTok is a way of reaching the younger generation and it is working. We’ve had a massive influx of customers on a weekend that are watching me every day, and they are generally in their 20-30s.

Matt has also embraced the latest meal preparation fashion in buying an air fryer.

“I bought myself one, a Ninja, because of the amount of questions I get asked about it. I have a young family too. My girl’s out dancing all week and my boy plays rugby and cricket. When I’m not at work I’m coaching the local U8s rugby team and cricket team. I appreciate the value of putting a meal together quickly during midweek and that’s where the Ninjas are good.

“Chuck a bit of chicken in there, a bit of veg, 20 minutes and it’s done, a hearty meal, but I’m not big lover of cooking Sunday dinner in it. You miss the flavours of slow cooking when the lovely juice comes out with a proper roasting, but it means I understand our customers’ needs.

Matt and all his family are involved with the business that is EV Slack & Sons that was started by his grandfather Edward Vernon Slack and includes their own meat processing facility, butcher’s shop, coffee shop called Tweed’s and 60-acre farm with 100 Suffolk-cross breeding ewes put to a Texel tup. Matt said he sees the local butcher coming back strongly and not just in Wadworth.

“We’re in a little village a couple of 100 yards off the main road. People use us for those special cuts. Within three miles of our door there are three major supermarkets. We realised there was no point competing because they will always be cheaper. We just stick to our quality. We offer the best of British meat and service.

“Supermarkets have now pretty much shut all their meat counters where they might have had a butcher. So, when you want to have a party with a rib of beef, French trimmed off a Hereford that has been hung in a dry ager for 3 weeks, the only place you can come to is us. It has gone full circle.

“My two brothers Luke and Tom and my sister Claire, our parents Lesley and Rodney are all involved. Dad buys out of Selby livestock market every Wednesday and our beef is from local farmer Joe Spetch who supplies Limousin-cross, Angus-cross and Hereford so that we match what our customers want. The Hereford and Angus look fantastic in the dry ager with a bit of cover on them. Everything we offer is traceable back to its source.

“My sister and mum run Tweeds, number one in this area on Trip Advisor. I run the butcher’s shop with my brothers helping at the busiest times, and they run the processing side. We all help out on the farm.

Matt’s social media campaign has brought about other developments.

“We’re making the shop bigger and better for our customers and we are looking at launching an online business. That’s all because of what we’ve done.

“For me this whole thing is about trying to educate the generation that butchers lost. We now have so many who don’t know where meat comes from and that is quite embarrassing for us as a nation.

Matt’s determination to serve his customers was matched by his grandfather many years ago.

“My family has been brought up on the story of my granddad’s wellington boot. He had all these orders to fulfil one Christmas and accidentally spilled scalding water down one of his welly boots. He wouldn’t take it off because he knew he wouldn’t be able to get it back on and wouldn’t be able to fulfil his orders.

“He slept in it for a week and when the doctor come round on Christmas Eve, after completing his orders, he had the welly cut off.

“The doctor told him he’d been a day from losing his foot, because he’d got gangrene.

“We were brought up that no matter how poorly you are, your granddad slept in his welly. That’s the sort of mentality we have here. We get on with the job no matter what and as butchers we’re here to stay.