Queensland butcher closes five stores to hold company-wide culture day

A well-known meat distributor has given its 87-strong team of staff a day off work in a bid to transform the company culture.

Super Butcher is closing its five stores across Queensland next Monday to hold a series of workshops and activities at its Capalaba premises, which is located in between the venues.

Joel Giacomantonio, general manager at Super Butcher, says he hopes the team building event will help foster a positive environment that makes the business a place where people come to work feeling motivated and where customers love to shop.

“We all want to shop at a place where it feels welcoming and feels like home and butchers have that [atmosphere] like the local barber or corner store,” Giacomantonio tells SmartCompany.

“And we know if we can look after our team, they’ll create an environment that people want to shop in,” he says.

Giacomantonio began working at Super Butcher as an apprentice and quickly rose through the ranks becoming a store manager, then purchasing manager and now general manager of all five stores at 28 years of age.

In his current role, Giacomantonio has been working on transforming the company culture with the guidance of people and culture consultant from Team: Engineered Jade Green. Green has helped Giacomantonio identify the systemic problems in the business and develop a strategy to improve them.

“I came in to help them to create their purpose … which is more connected to the bigger picture and what’s in it not only for the team, but for the communities that the businesses serve,” Green tells SmartCompany.

Green has helped Super Butcher figure out what she calls ‘company virtues’ as opposed to values, which include having a ‘no dickhead’ policy and speaking up when an issue arises.

The full range of company virtues will be communicated to staff for the first time during next Monday’s culture day event, which will also include workshops, exercises and a game of football. Every staff member who attends the event will receive their regular pay.

“The activities are designed to be fun, but mainly they’re about giving staff a voice and asking them what the code of conduct is behind each of the virtues,” Green says.

According to Green, Super Butcher didn’t always have a strong reputation and the current management has decided change that, aspiring to make the business the number one local employer of choice in southeast Queensland.

“What we want out of culture day is for staff to know that the line in the sand has been drawn, that they are the priority and that they come before anything else,” she says.

Super Butcher sells a full range of meat as well as small goods, sauces and eggs from its e-store and shops in Ashmore, Eagle Farm, Browns Plains, Oxenford and Birkdale.

Established in 2008, the large independent meat retailer was bought by Damian Hall about 12 months ago.