WINNER: Linda Brennan, pictured with Tim Jones, has won the Tim Jones Family Butcher's Christmas hamper in association with the Killarney Advertiser.

Tim Jones Family Butchers has been operating in Killarney since 1991. Over the past number of years they have enjoyed modest growth and have expanded their business to two shops, one on Park Road, the other in the Innisfallen Mall. Tim supplies some of the finest restaurants, hotels and B&Bs in the Kerry region and when COVID-19 hit in March this side of the business was hit hard.

“Yes, it’s been a trying year for us, especially on that side of things, but it has been difficult for everyone in business and there’s no point getting down about it, we just put an extra focus on trying to support our loyal customers, ensuring they continue to get great quality meat at affordable prices,” Tim told the Killarney Advertiser.

Tim wanted to help ease the financial stress that comes with the festive season and came up with a novel idea to help customers spread the cost of their Christmas dinner.

“We went about setting up a system in-shop whereby the customer can fill out a Christmas order form. It’s very easy; they write down their details, tick off their selection of meat and away they go. Our customers have the option of paying up front or weekly in either shop. It’s great, the customers just pop in each week and pay off a small amount, by the time Christmas comes around we are all square and they are calling to collect a monster Christmas meat hamper. There is a bit of extra admin on our end but the reaction has been fantastic and customers really appreciate that kind of thing."

Tim Jones is well-known for his support of local sports clubs and other events in town and was delighted to get involved in The Killarney Advertiser's 'Shop Local' campaign. “It’s a great idea and it’s a bit of fun, shoppers are hopefully getting close to collecting all four coloured vouchers now and best of luck to them all in the big draw next week."

Thanks to Tim Jones Family Butchers and the Killarney Advertiser, Christmas has come early for one lucky family. Linda Brennan (pictured below) won our Facebook competition last week which was run to celebrate the launch of the campaign. Speaking to the Killarney Advertiser she said, “I have five men at home, my husband Andy and four sons, Arron (19), Darragh (16), Cian (13) and nine-year-old Luke, even they will have a job of getting through this amount of meat." Included in the hamper was a fresh turkey, half a green ham, a roast loin of pork joint, 2lb of sausages, 1lb of sausage meat, one black and white pudding, 1lb of rashers, a dozen eggs, and a 5kg bag of potatoes. Handing over the prize to Linda, Tim Jones said "it’s great the hamper was won by a big family because our hampers are jam packed this year, and as I often say to our customers – better to be looking at it rather than for it".