KIWI BUTCHERS ARE GOING FOR GOLD: NEW ZEALAND BUTCHERY TEAMS ANNOUNCED
For Immediate Release
Monday 27th June 2022
KIWI BUTCHERS ARE GOING FOR GOLD: NEW ZEALAND BUTCHERY TEAMS ANNOUNCED
New Zealand’s two national butchery teams have been named and they are preparing to compete on the world stage at the 2022 World Butchers’ Challenge (WBC) in Sacramento, California on September 2 & 3, 2022. The newly selected Hellers Sharp Blacks and ANZCO Foods Young Butchers of New Zealand teams consist of the best butchers in the country and have their sights set on global victory. The World Butchers’ Challenge, a biennial event commonly known as the ‘Olympics of Butchery’ will see fourteen teams finally compete in Sacramento’s iconic Golden 1 Center after postponement in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Hellers Sharp Blacks have their sights set on The Golden Knife Trophy and are out for redemption in 2022, after New Zealand’s close brush with victory at the 2018 competition in Belfast, Northern Ireland where they placed second in the world.
Riki Kerekere will be captaining the team in Sacramento, having taken over from former skipper Corey Winder – known as the “the Richie McCaw of butchery” – who had led the team since its inception in 2011.
“Stepping in for Corey is without doubt the most daunting task I've ever undertaken,” says Kerekere, “I now know what Kieran Read was feeling when he took over from the great Richie McCaw.”
Preparations are now ramping up with Kerekere keeping the squad focused on bringing home the gold.
“The competition has grown and teams who competed in Ireland will be back and battled hardened. We understand the enormous task ahead so my game plan as captain is simply keeping this new team focused on performing well and making our trade, country and Whānau proud.”
Once there, fourteen international teams will be tasked with slicing up a side of beef, a side of pork, a whole lamb and five chickens to produce a themed display of value-added products in the pressure-inducing time of just three hours and fifteen minutes.
The Hellers Sharp Blacks squad is made up of the following members;
• Riki Kerekere (Team Captain, Product Developer) – Hellers, Auckland
• Reuben Sharples (Boning and Trimming) – Aussie Butcher New Lynn, Auckland
• Dan Klink (Boning and Trimming) - Mangawhai Meat Shop, Northland
• Corey White (Product Developer) – A Lady Butcher, Auckland
• Luka Young (Product Developer) – PAK’nSAVE Kaitaia, Northland
• Cherise Redden (Garnish and Display) – PAK’nSAVE Glen Innes, Auckland
• James Smith (Garnish and Display/Non-Travelling Team Member) – Franklin Country Meats/The Tattooed Butcher, Auckland
Emerging talent identified at national butchery competitions over the past four years make up the ANZCO Foods Young Butchers of New Zealand team. The World Champion Butcher Apprentice and Young Butcher competitions will be the curtain raiser event at the 2022 World Butcher’s Challenge.
Young Butcher contestants must be under 35 years of age while entrants into the Butcher Apprentice category must have been working through their trade apprenticeship in March 2021. Both events allow competitors just two hours and thirty minutes to break down a range of primal cuts into a display of pre-determined products and their own creations. The cuts include a beef rump, side of lamb, pork loin and two chickens.
The 2022 ANZCO Foods Young Butchers of New Zealand team is made up of the following members:
• Brad Gillespie, New World Rototuna, Hamilton (Young Butcher)
• Justin Hinchco, Foodstuffs North Island, Hawke’s Bay (Young Butcher)
• Isaac Webster, New World Gardens, Dunedin (Apprentice Butcher)
• Maria Pio, PAK’nSAVE Rangiora, Christchurch (Apprentice Butcher)
Kiwi Rod Slater, WBC Founder and Chairman of the Organising Committee, is credited with coming up with the original concept of the Trans-Tasman Test Match. Alongside Ashley Gray, World Butchers’ Challenge CEO, they have driven, in just a few years, what was a fun, industry-focused event into an international phenomenon attracting world-wide media coverage and record sponsorship.
Slater said of the exponential success: “When I came up with the concept over a glass of whisky with an Aussie colleague, I never thought it would grow into what it is today. It just goes to show that the international butchery trade is not just alive and kicking, it’s truly flourishing.”
To get a good idea of what it’s all about, watch the TVNZ On Demand series Knives Out which documented the Sharp Black’s journey to Belfast in 2018.
The Hellers Sharp Blacks are sponsored by Hellers, Beef + Lamb New Zealand , New Zealand Pork, Active Refrigeration, Argus, Kiwi Labels, Multivac, Pure South New Zealand and Dunninghams.
The ANZCO Foods Young Butchers of New Zealand are proudly sponsored by ANZCO Foods and Victory Knives.
-ENDS-
For further information, please contact:
Lauren Shamy
Social Media and PR Executive
Retail Meat New Zealand
lauren@rmnz.co.nz 021 038 2791
For individual team bios and high res images click here.