Net butcher carves niche

Reputation and word-of-mouth are the keys to selling meat online, says a Forrestfield butcher.

Paul Verity and his wife, Saskia, started an online butcher shop, Farm Fresh Meats Direct, almost four years ago when selling food online was just starting to take off.

At the time, Mr Verity was frustrated by the low quality and high prices of fresh meat available in Perth and wanted to give farmers a fair price and deliver a fantastic product to customers' doors.

Today, the online retail store sells lamb from Walwalling Farm in Pingelly as well as Mt Barker Chicken, Plantagenet Pork and beef from Midwest Beef Processors.

And business is booming, with demand coming from metropolitan households as well as those up north in mining towns and across the ocean to Christmas and Cocos islands.

"Right from day dot, we said we won't be the cheapest but we'll offer a good service and quality product and we want people to be happy," Mr Verity said.

"With meat, people want to see what they are buying, so this business survives on reputation and word-of-mouth. It's our best form of advertising."

To keep the meat fresh, it's vacuum packed for home delivery.

"We have gone from nothing to turning over $18,000 to $25,000 a week and a lot of that growth has been in the last 18 months to two years and it's expanding all the time."

Remote customers are also able to order local fresh fruit and vegetables weekly.