From the professional and chipper tone of Bobby Schofield’s voice – it’s hard to believe he has spent the last few days sleeping in the basement of a meat shop.
I am speaking to the co-owner of MacDonald and Son Butchers on the phone the week before Christmas.
It is all hands on deck for the third-generation family business in Dundee.
“The orders – I cannot keep up with them at all,” Bobby, 44, laughs.
“This Christmas it is unreal how much we’re having to make.
“I mean – wow, I’ve never, ever had to make so much.
“Last year, I did a 36-hour shift straight all the way through, because we were that busy.
“And the likelihood is that I’ll have to do that again this year.”
Not that he is complaining. “You’ve got to do it while the opportunity is there.”
And it wasn’t always this way.
Launching MacDonald and Son Butchers website after decline in footfall to store
Following a sharp decline in footfall to the Lochee High Street store due to competition from supermarkets and the Covid pandemic – the business wasn’t thriving as it once was.
Bobby and his wife Julie – whose grandfather David MacDonald founded the butcher in 1935 – realised a change was necessary if they wanted to stay afloat.
Launching a website in 2021, they had hopes of reaching more customers in Dundee via online deliveries.
They got more than they bargained for.
“I saw there were a few orders coming through from people down south,” Bobby says.
“I thought, ‘There’s a market there – a potential for expats who are living in England that cannot get their Scottish foods.
“I have lived in London myself and I know what it’s like when you are really aching on a Lorne sausage roll or a proper Scottish pie.
“And so we started targeting customers down south – and it just grew from there.
“This year has been our biggest year where we have seen a 30% increase in sales.”
MacDonald and Son Butchers’ 10-strong team now produces and distributes thousands of products a month to Scots across the UK who are craving their favourite treats.
As well as their quality meats and bestselling pies, they have expanded their offering with a selection of traditional Scottish products.
Their popular hampers feature the likes of well-fired rolls, Aberdonian butteries, Tunnocks tea cakes and Baxter’s soup.
How childhood sweethearts Bobby and Julie rekindled romance
Bobby and Julie, 41, who both grew up in Broughty Ferry, met through family friends as children.
Bobby recalls: “We were going out for a couple of years when we were teenagers before we both went off to university and did our own things.
“Then I went to live abroad for a few years in Australia.
“Me and Julie remained friends through the years.
“Then I called her up from Australia in 2014 and said, ‘Look, I’m going to come back and marry you’.
“And she just laughed it off.
“Eventually, I moved to London, and I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to give it one more go.
“And I came up to Dundee one year for Christmas with a pair of Tiffany earrings to try and win her over.”
It worked.
The pair were married in 2018 and went on to welcome Jack, five, and Susie, three.
And Bobby also managed to win over Julie’s late dad Brian, who was running the butcher at the time.
He says: “When I got together with Julie and decided to move back to Dundee to be with her, her father said, ‘Look, why don’t you join the family business?'”
With a degree in entrepreneurship and a career background in sales and marketing, Bobby was up for the challenge.
Brian, who was a butcher for 55 years, took his son-in-law under his wing.
“He was one of the last master butchers in Dundee,” Bobby says. “He taught me the trade.
“I don’t think I could have learned this industry from a better man.
“He was proper old school.”
Brian died suddenly aged 74 in 2022.
Old family recipes key to Lochee butcher success
Since then, Bobby and Julie have taken the butcher from strength to strength.
But while they are revolutionsing their business model – they have no plans to change the traditional family recipes at the heart of their success.
Bobby says: “We use all my father-in-law’s recipes – Julie and I have never changed a thing, because he had such a good name for himself.
“We actually have an old safe here, which I believe belonged to Julie’s granddad.
“And we managed to crack it open, and we found a whole heap of old recipes in there, and one of them was for Scotch pies, and we decided to start making them again using that recipe.
“And the feedback we get is unbelievable. It really is.”
While Bobby spends his time in the shop, Julie handles the administration and paperwork from home.
Julie’s mum Bett, who they live with, also keeps her hand in.
Bobby jokes: “I’m the boss, and then Julie is the big boss – and then my mother-in-law is the big, big boss.
“She is in charge of Christmas decorations and Valentine’s decorations in the shop window every year – as well as keeping me on my toes.”
Could MacDonald and Son Butchers become a fourth-generation business?
Despite the rewarding nature of running a family business, Bobby admits it can be hard spending so much time away from home.
“I don’t get to see as much of the kids as I would like to with the amount of hours I have to do,” Bobby says.
“It’s very difficult trying to spend a lot of time with them.”
Thankfully, they enjoy popping in with their mum.
“Julie comes in every now and again and shows them around because this was her dad and granddad’s business and she’s proud.
“Jack and Susie love coming in and looking at all the bits and pieces and pressing all the labelling machines and sitting in the office.
“They may well want to get involved in this in the future, and maybe turn it into a fourth-generation business, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Indeed, the family have big plans for the future of the shop.
“I think the online side of the business has massive potential, so we are going to knuckle down and concentrate on that,” Bobby says.
“You can market yourself to anyone in the entire UK if you’re online.
“It would be good if MacDonald and Son could build a reputation as the place you go to for any Scottish produce if you are living outside of Scotland.
“And we will continue to serve our very loyal customer base in Lochee.”
Conversation