Scott Brothers, Broughty Ferry
Scott Brothers are an historic family butchers in Dundee who have been trading since 1935.
Having been trading for 90 years, Scott Brothers made the bold decision to completely overhaul their business in Broughty Ferry by relocating their existing shop to a new premises. An imposing former bank on a prominent street corner became available and was an obvious location.
Key considerations for the new shop included:
- Creation of sustainable refrigerated display counters, including a butchery counter specifically to enable the holding of fresh meat overnight without deterioration
- A new deli and takeaway food area
- Utilise an exiting window viewing a meat aging display from the street
- Bespoke fabrication with wooden claddings
- Bespoke tiled surfaces for floor and walls
- Low energy display lighting and illumination
Planning the refurbishment
Scott Brothers had advantageously taken possession of the old empty bank well in advance of the fit-out. This provided opportunity to carry out advance planning to formulate a preferred layout with some key objectives for the new shop. Further discussion allowed us to develop these ideas into a full design scheme.
Several different options were discussed for the main display counters and the classic linear layout was an obvious choice to maximise the width of the retail shop area, with butchery and deli counters separated with a new hot food & takeaway area.
The preferred theme of the shop was to combine all the elements of Scott Brothers branding with a blend of classic grey shades and natural wood. A unique and distinct stylised touch was for all visible prep cupboards to be fitted with wooden grey doors to match that, in itself, required a lot of detailed coordination between our joiner and fabricator.
Other (often overlooked) considerations included mood lighting and specialised food lighting to bring everything to life.
The new butchery counter
A regular frustration for butchers is having to empty their meat counter every night and then re-merchandise it again in the morning.
Scott Brothers were eager to try and overcome this tiring ritual and so we offered a butchery counter from Eurocryor that features their “Dynamic System” refrigeration. This has been purposely designed to include a “night mode” with a combination of an upsized evaporator , special adjustable low-speed fans, night covers and an adaptive controller that maintains correct temperature AND humidity.
** It ensures that the meat is kept overnight in optimum conditions within the counter and ready to be displayed again the following day without any other intervention **
This saves several hours per day in what would otherwise be time-consuming preparation and clear-up for shop staff. Spread across months and years the savings to Scott Brothers will be substantial.
The Result
This project has been a complete relocation of an existing butchers shop the results are different to a conventional refit. Scott Brothers have invested for future generations of family to carry on the business and a much wider scope of future-proofing was required.
The whole retail area has been designed with flexibility and sustainability in mind to offer a customer-focused experience for fresh meat, cooked meat, pies, takeaway hot food and frozen foods.
Customers are now also able to view the butchery & deli preparation within the extensive open area behind the counter and see for themselves all the hard work that goes into the fresh-food products on display. A great deal of thought was applied to the special claddings and finishes so that these helped create an inviting and holistic environment for customers & staff alike.
The new shop sits also within a bustling independent food retailer area alongside a bakery, greengrocers and fishmonger so ideally positioned to attract another whole new & wider customer base.
