Masterful products for supermarkets

“My love of the butcher’s trade,” says master butcher Jack Keulen, “forms the basis of everything I do.” That love provides a strong foundation for the numerous activities he is involved in.

Jack Keulen owns a busy artisan butcher’s shop, supplies ‘made in Limburg’ meat products to major supermarket chains and has developed, in conjunction with and for grocery retailer Albert Heijn, the ‘Streeckgenoten’ brand of regional processed meat products which was rolled out nationwide at the end of October.
In 1983, he was just 24 years old when he and his wife Tonny took over his parents’ butcher’s shop on Kerkstraat in Hulsberg – a village with only 4,000 inhabitants. Behind the shop he produced meat products “that I sold via the ‘back door’, i.e. without involving the purchasing department, to branches of supermarkets throughout Limburg such as Albert Heijn. You can’t do things like that nowadays, now that every product is traceable.” The demand for his authentic ‘made in Limburg’ meat products grew, as did the company Keulen Vleeswaren. He opened the front door of the company for his regional products. Keulen grew and joined forces with one of his peers, Snijders Vleeswaren in Born, from a logistics perspective. Their joint brand is ‘Lekker uit Limburg’.

Production growth

After a number of years, the activities to produce the processed meat products and sausages had outgrown the space behind the butcher’s shop, so Keulen commissioned the construction of a brand-new 2,000-square-metre production facility on an industrial estate in Nuth. The company followed this with a second meat factory on the same estate later on. This is where Keulen also manufactures meat products for the GIJS brand of local products: stews made to traditional Limburg recipes. 

‘Our suppliers are all based locally. They take good care of their animals and they work sustainably’

“In actual fact, Keulen Vleeswaren comprises three different companies,” explains Jack. “In addition to the manufacturing company which is headed up by our son Ben, there’s also a commercial company – VVL – and an emotional one. The challenge for the production company is to operate as efficiently as possible. The commercial company develops new products, brands and concepts for the retail sector, such as ‘Streeckgenoten’. For this we’re always looking for good regional butchers with local specialties, such as Theo Beerens, a master butcher from Eindhoven who produces the ‘Woenselse berliner’ (sliced sausage) and ‘Brabantse boterhamworst’ (luncheon meat). Each area has its own preferences in terms of processed meat products. In the north they like to use cloves as ingredients, whereas products such as black pudding and salted meat are popular in Amsterdam.” Keulen Vleeswaren itself supplies around 16 different products for the ‘Streeckgenoten’ range.
 

Craftsman and expert

The fact that Keulen is both a craftsman and an expert definitely helped him when selecting the right suppliers and products for the ‘Streeckgenoten’ range. “In the past meat buyers used to be butchers themselves, but that’s no longer the case. In this partnership, it helps that I speak the same language and that we share a background in the butcher’s trade,” says Jack. “The choice of butchers makes all the difference. In addition to offering the best products, they also need to be able to produce the necessary volumes as well as meeting the retailers’ strict quality and hygiene requirements.”
The third element of the business – the emotional company – revolves around the artisan village butcher’s shop. Jack puts his heart and soul into taking the butcher’s trade to the next level. He has just returned from a work trip to Austria where he provided butchery training to fellow members of the Netherlands Association of Master Butchers (VNM). Thanks to following the Butchers Education & Experience Forum (BEEF) concept, they remain at the forefront of the sector in the Netherlands. “Nowadays, there are fewer butchers who are skilled in all aspects of the trade,” he says. “Through the forum, we explore the very latest developments and trends in the food world as master butchers.”

Craftsmanship

The VNM was founded in 2000, which is coincidentally the same year that Keurslagerij Keulen was named as Butcher of the Year. This is just one of the many awards won by the butcher, his business and his products. Keulen takes pride in the awards as evidence of the quality of his company and the standard of his craftsmanship, but he is equally proud of the region and his suppliers. “Our suppliers are all based locally. They take good care of their animals and they work sustainably. Pig farmer Ruud, for example, includes residual products from the food industry in his livestock feed and also separates the manure into recyclable components. He is just one Limburg-based supplier who is a good fit with Keulen’s transparent chain from farm to fork.” Keulen is another one, by the way – he has is own beef cattle farm.

In the future Jack plans to take things a little easier, although his huge passion for the butcher’s trade might possibly stand in the way of that. And he’s already looking ahead to how, as a butcher, he can capitalise on trends like online and blurring. 

www.keulenvleeswaren.nl