There are no end of hidden gems on our high streets, and the Leader is putting the spotlight on these local heroes throughout July for Independent Retailer Month.

Meet today's trader...

Name: Carlos Grech

Business: CJ's Butchers

Location: Daniel Owen Precinct, Mold

Telephone: 01352 219216

Opening hours: 8am-5pm Monday to Saturday. On Saturday sometimes we have to open at 7am because we have people knocking on the door wanting goods.

When did you open and why?

We've been here 10-and-a-half months. I was teaching in Mold and due to the fact I was no longer needed to teach my traditional way of butchery, I left. Upon leaving I was teaching Lucy (Lucy Smart, now a butcher a CJ's Butchers).

I was going to quit and finish with the butchering altogether and Lucy changed my mind and said why don't you try and get a shop in Mold?

We decided to open the shop in Mold and it's the best thing we ever did - not only for ourselves but for Mold and surrounding areas.

We have people coming from Blackburn, Lancaster, Liverpool, Runcorn, Warrington - a very vast mileage to buy our produce.

Why did you open in this location?

We actually came and looked down the precinct and Lucy saw this one and she said this is an absolute prime area.

At the time there was not many people around but what I noticed Lucy doing was she was saying look at the shops around us.

This is an area where we can increase the footfall tenfold and plus. I looked at it and she was right.

We opened the door of this shop and it was an eyesore - we did all the work in the shop ourselves. This is a very similar design as my farm shop.

The Leader:

Tell us about your business/what do you sell...

We make and produce all our own sausage, we do our own home made steak burgers, lamb burgers, bacon burgers, we do our own traditional style stir fries. We cut all our carcasses in a totally different fashion to any supermarket and any other butcher.

Everything here now is all bought from local farmers or through the local cattle market and its all slaughtered local. If it's not taken from the farm to the abattoir, its taken from the cattle market to the abattoir.

What's your most memorable/proudest moment in business?

Our most memorable moment is when we first opened. With 80 per cent of our customers, the first thing they said when they walked through the door was that it was lovely to see a traditional butcher back in Mold.

That is something that Lucy and I are very proud of, and we will never forget that.

Have you had any strange requests/quirky suggestions or stories from customers?

We have them quite often - we get requests from customers asking for goat meat and lots of customers coming in asking for mutton because they can't get that anywhere.

It is unusual - the older generation do ask for it, the younger generation not so much.

We get asked regular for tomahawk steaks, which are a very unusual steak. We take it off the rib and we cut it down two inches from the bone and clean it, so when they cook it, it actually does look like a tomahawk.

We have been asked for kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich - we don't stock it but we have now recently found someone who does grow this sort of thing, so were going to go out and view them and see what they have - that is a big possibility for us to do.