Award-winning trio team up

06/10/08

Award-winning trio team up

THE three Stalbridge winners in the recent Blackmore Vale Media Taste of Dorset Awards are joining forces after getting chatting at the awards gala evening.

Dike & Son Superstore in Stalbridge, Else Butchers and Seafoods of Stalbridge are uniting to provide Dike’s customers with locally-sourced fresh meat and fish at the 22,000 sq ft family-run store.

“It’s great for our customers and it’s great for Stalbridge,” said owner Andy Dike. “Else’s are first class butchers and they will be bringing fantastic quality into the store, with local meat, poultry and game. And Martyn and Nicki Else’s excellent fish business fits in perfectly what we are trying to do here at Dike’s.”

Roger Else will stay at the family’s High Street shop while son Julian will be based up at Dike’s. Julian said: “ We’re trying to cater for everybody, which is very important. We will have a fresh meat counter there as well as selling pre-packed meat to suit all the different customers, so they’ll hopefully be getting the best of both worlds.”

The Else’s meat and fish counters are already up and running at Dike’s, but they won’t be launching officially until the end of October, “to give us time to get a good feel for what the customers want.”

Martyn Else will carry on doing his local rounds in the van, but customers can now also buy his fish and seafood in-store. He said: “Our emphasis is on fish that is as local as possible, from Weymouth and Poole, as well as Brixham. Now our customers can buy it fresh every day, there’ll be more choice and we’ll be trying to make it more affordable while keeping the quality. We are delighted about this, as we are all food people and we all complement each other.”

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