'I quit my job at 51 and retrained as a butcher'

After running a care agency for 30 years, Emma Jenkins wanted to change her career. Realising a family-run butchers was up for sale, she went for an impromptu viewing and is now the owner.

Thinking of pursuing food-related work, she said she "just thought I'd go and have a look" at the premises in Earlsdon, Coventry.

But walking in and seeing then owner Stuart Taylor standing behind the counter, made Jenkins appreciate the family-run background and she decided to buy the business as "it just felt right somehow".

She was trained up by Taylor, whose grandfather founded the business in 1938.

Jenkins said recent weeks had been a "rollercoaster" and hard graft, but she was loving the work.

"Care was mentally draining. This is physically draining - I've gone from one extreme to the other," she said.

Jenkins had run the care agency alongside her mother for decades and sold it in December 2024.

"I always wanted to do something with food, and care has changed so much over the years," she told BBC Radio CWR.

After briefly trying her hand in a corporate role, she realised "the corporate world just wasn't for me" and her interest was piqued when she spotted the butchers for sale.

Taylor, who had worked there for 40 years and been at the helm of the business for 22 years, had decided to step back and find a new path with his family.

However, he stayed on long enough to show Jenkins the ropes.

Jenkins added: "It's just been a rollercoaster, but I am enjoying it."

Taylor has offered to remain working there Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

"My granddad Percy Taylor started this in 1938 and ran it for many years, then my dad ran it for many years," he recalled.

The butcher added: "I'm 56 now and I took over from my dad when he was 56, but he had me to do that. My kids don't want to do it, they've got their own careers.

"I've made the decision that it's time for me and my wife to do something different."

Despite no longer running the company, he said it would remain at the heart of the community as "they've supported us for three generations".

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