Cleaver award nominations close soon

EXCLUSIVE: "You know, there is a billboard that says Never heard of Pineapple? Honestly same.”

Danette Breitenbach

The Cleaver Awards, hosted every year for consumers to acknowledge outstanding butcheries from around South Africa, close for entries on 31 December 2010. Once the nominations are in, SAMIC (South African Meat Industry Company) receives the shortlist from the South African Red Meat Industry Forum, which sponsors the awards. SAMIC decides on a starting date for auditing, as well as a date when the process of auditing must be finished.

It uses 11 judges to visit the shortlist of finalist butcheries in the nine provinces. They evaluate the finalists against a 212 point checklist, which includes the hygiene status of the butchery, regarding several specific areas together with the consumer quality assurance regarding certain specific points which the butchery needs to have in place. They also evaluate the service to the customers and value for money and penalises certain negative aspects.

According to Rudi van der Westhuizen, SAMIC executive director, who adjudicates the finalists, the same judges are used every year. He notes that there have been improvements over the years, especially when one looks at the percentage score out of 212 possible points, with some butcheries scoring close to 100%.

The important advantages of a butchery receiving such an award are that he cannot enter the awards but is nominated by his customers, secondly the exposure that particular butchery will get in the media, as well as word of mouth recommendations from friends and family of the consumers, which will urge new consumers to visit new winning butcheries. Once new customers experience good service, value for money and excellent quality, these consumers will support that butchery in the future.