Meet the Proprietor
This month, we’re kicking off a new column called ‘Meet the Proprietor’. In this column, we’ll get to know one of our local shops and learn all about them.
Bridge 67 Butchers
For our first column, we had the pleasure of chatting with Jill Vickers from Bridge 67 Butchers. As you might know, Bridge 67 Butchers won the Countryside Alliance’s Clarissa Dickson Wright Award for Britain’s best rural business back in June of this year. It was a bit too late for our June edition, but now it’s time to say congratulations to her and her team!
We caught up with Jill in her office as she was finalising the details of a cheese event coming up on Saturday 6 December, (put this date in your diary now), at the Kibworth Community Hub, just in time for Christmas.
Jill’s journey from living on her parents’ farm at Warkton, near Kettering, to becoming the lead proprietor of a highly sought-after shop on Kibworth High Street has been nothing short of inspiring. After completing her ‘A’ levels in Business Studies, she went on to study marketing at university. In 2004, she married John Vickers, one of our local farming families. They have two lovely children together.
Over the years, John and Jill decided to diversify their business. Jill, with her passion for cooking, started using her skills to set up the Bridge 67 Cookery School. They would have ‘Open Days’ at the farm to educate people about rural life and even sell meat from the family freezer. This venture was a huge success, and customers started asking if there was anywhere that they could buy their lamb and beef?
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and after conducting thorough market research, the premises on Kibworth High Street were converted into Bridge 67 Butchers.
Jill is passionate about providing the highest quality meat and meat products available. She actively listens to her customers and is eager to share her knowledge with us all. She believes that cheap food isn’t sustainable, and that we all need to understand that food comes at a price.
John and Jill are deeply passionate about animal welfare and now host lambing days annually at the farm where customers can see the reality of life on the farm.
Her advice about starting up a business – do your research first! Ensure you are providing a product we all want. We would say Jill is doing just that.
Kilby Get to Know Your Neighbours
