James Westwood of The Reindeer at Long Bennington takes on Newark’s G H Porters Provisions, and Zest Brewery of Grantham
A pub owner and chef is expanding his business empire by taking on an historic town centre shop.
GH Porter Provisions, on the corner of Newark Market Place and Bridge Street, ran for more than 130 years until September of last year when the owners at the time made the difficult decision to close due to increased costs, changing shopping habits, and a decline in footfall in the town centre.
Now James Westwood, who runs The Reindeer at Long Bennington, has stepped in to save the smokery and delicatessen.
Along with business partners Zest Brewery, he plans to preserve the history of the business while modernising it to meet modern consumer habits, and has promised that Porter’s will be the “same shop you know and love, but will feel refreshed and enhanced”.
“Independent shops have a personal connection with customers that you just don’t get anywhere else, and play a massive part in the life of a town,” said James.
“If we don’t look after small businesses, we don’t have high streets and we don’t have town centres.
“When I first heard that Porters had closed I was genuinely upset. So I got in touch to see what I could do, and now here we are.
“We are excited to get going.”
James trained as a butcher at his family’s business when he was a young man, before going on to become a professional chef and business owner.
He hopes that this wealth of experience and knowledge will make the shop a success — with plans to keep the iconic range of smoked meat going and expand the range, as well as offering new products, and a hand-made ‘sausage of the week’.
He added: “We want to encourage more people to eat fresh, good-quality food, from local producers, and the best way to do that is to shop independent
“So, if you make one small change in life, shop locally where you can, because every penny makes a difference.”
It is hoped that Porters can reopen in November, and while the finishing touches are being put in place, a new online shop and social media pages will be launched.
On the website, customers will be able to sign up to a mailing list, browse a range of fresh produce prepared in-house for delivery, and discover interesting meal recipes for how to prepare the ingredients.
The meat butchered in the shop will also be served in James’s pubs, helping to drive business and advertise produce to diners who may want to recreate a dishes at home.
Kathy Britton, owner and director of Zest Brewery, hopes to be able to sell their beer and other alcoholic products in the shop.
She said: “We have worked with James before in his pubs and when we heard about this idea, we wanted to be involved.
“Him being a chef and us being brewer makes quite a good pairing, and with our experience in dealing with customers as well as online and wholesale meant we had all the elements in place, we just needed to bring them together.
“We are based near Grantham and deliver to a lot of Newark pubs too — so we wanted to make sure that we could support a business that should never have closed in the first place and reopen it for the community.”
