Regular International hot and cold food trader GAVIN’S HOMEMADE BILTONG, created by Gavin and Trish.
What’s the story behind your name?
Pretty simply our brand is my name and what we make highlighting our brand as 
being Gavin’s Homemade Biltong. Our logo incorporates our root country flags, we’re originally from Zimbabwe and I have a South African Mum (South Africa is also where biltong originates), then the Union Jack as this is our home now. It’s and all incorporated within a cow’s head – the animal where all our meat is from.
Who runs your business? Do you have time to do any other jobs or is this full time?
This full time home business is family owned and run by Gavin who does all the hard, messy, meat production etc. and wife Trish who helps where possible especially all the tidying up, washing of equipment, packaging and labelling and manning the market stalls that we do.
What do you make?
We make South African biltong products and Sausage. Biltong products are basically spiced and air dried meats – mainly beef steaks and thin dried beef sausage. These are sliced after drying and packaged in various size bags. We also make a traditional farmer’s sausage called boerewors made from beef, pork and lamb all combined to make a gorgeous tasting sausage mainly for BBQ but can be cooked any way you like. We also use our sausage and burgers to do hot food stalls at various markets, including Worker Bee markets in Gatley and Bramhall. We post throughout the UK and EU. We’ve won various Great Taste awards.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Both being farmers kids, we grew up with biltong s a staple snack in our diet. Gavin was hunting and making biltong by the age of five on the farm and his father was an avid hunter, camper, food gatherer and great “outdoors” cook who would try anything. This has been passed down to Gavin who experiments with food all the time – hence the love of biltong and boerewors products in quite a few variations.
Where can people find you?
We work from our home in Macclesfield from our fully registered EU UK approved facility with a 5* Food Hygiene rating. We attend a few different markets including Worker Bee Markets in Bramhall, Gatley and Heald Green, The Makers Market and Love Bollington Market. Plus we also look for other events to attend like Macclesfield Festival, Car-Fest North, Private functions etc. and are always looking for more events. We supply to a few deli’s and pubs too. Find our market list here.
Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to start their own creative small business?
Just get on and do it – it takes determination and guts – only you can make it work so just do whatever it takes. Keep it simple. Spend money to get the things you need and go with your hunch, heart and thoughts – just keep going and it will work for you. Get a good presence on Social Media – we built the business from nothing to being full time within a few short months through Facebook alone. Photos and a bit of networking did it all – get involved and network in groups associated with your product, hobbies, area etc.
Worker Bee Markets 