Preston’s to shut up shop
A century-old traditional butchery is following its Palmerston North customers online and shutting up shop.
The 114-year-old, family-run, Preston’s Master Butchers will today close its Palmerston North store, after 33 years in Cuba St.
Preston Group general manager Hamish Preston said the family were proud of their traditional butchery, but customers seemed to prefer online shopping, with fewer coming into the store, and more ordering online.
‘‘It’s completely against tradition. But if you always keep doing the same thing, no matter what, it won’t work – we’ve got to change with the times, because our customers habits are changing.’’
Preston said online shopping had become a larger part of retail, due to its convenience, but it has only recently started to take over with butchery customers as well.
People trusted online shopping now, and they trusted wellestablished butcheries to maintain quality, so they didn’t feel the need to come into the store and check the cuts anymore, he said.
The company’s other two stores, in Wellington and Porirua, would stay open, but the trend meant the Palmerston North store was no longer viable.
Preston said the Wellington store was able to balance things out with wholesale work, supplying cafes and restaurants around the Wellington area, and the shift has yet to cut into the Porirua butchery’s in-store customers.
The Palmerston North branch was also not as big a part of their operation as it used to be.
‘‘At one point we had 30 staff in Palmerston North, back when we had contracts to supply the army, air force and prisons.’’
Palmerston North was a good central location for those contracts, but when Preston’s lost the contracts to bigger national suppliers the butchery cut back on the store’s staff.
Preston said the eight current employees were all offered jobs in Wellington or Porirua.
The equipment and machinery will also be redeployed to Wellington, as the company looked to consolidate all its nationwide sales and wholesale operations.
The Cuba St building would be put up for sale, Preston said. themselves More than 140 pupils at a Manawatu¯ school were not born in New Zealand.
Hailing from 42 countries, they speak 50 different languages.
Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School’s annual multicultural assembly provides a collision of culture, with flashes of diversity from 48 ethnicities.
Friday’s event was no different as 732 pupils crammed into the school hall to watch pupils from varied backgrounds sing, dance and talk about aspects of their culture. Not only did it give pupils a sense of pride in their homeland, but it also educated their fellow classmates, English language teacher Barb Drake said.
Although, putting the show together was no mean feat. Pupils had about 15 training sessions to ensure everything ran smoothly.
Brothers Camille and Hyacinthe Chemasle earned rousing applause from their classmates after their passionate rendition of a French song, while a group of Japanese pupils drew the same reaction for their impressive performance playing the drums.
The assembly preceded Te Wiki o Te Reo Ma¯ori-ma¯ori Language Week, a governmentsponsored initiative starting today intended to encourage New Zealanders to promote the use of te reo Ma¯ori. ‘‘We’d like them to be proud of their culture and share it with us,’’ Drake said.
‘‘We want our kids to have that global knowledge and awareness.’’
Principal Hamish Ruawai echoed Drake’s comments, saying it was great to have such a rich and diverse group of pupils.
‘‘They shared with us their culture, their language, their food.
‘‘We’re getting more and more diverse and it’s an absolute blessing for us.’’