About Us ,
www.orkneysbest.co.uk results
from a meeting between Thorfinn Craigie, who with his wife Katherine runs
the wholesale butchers E R & T Craigie, and Stewart Anderson who with
his wife Jacky runs Rickla, Orkney’s 5-star b&b & self-catering
establishment.
E R & T Craigie is a family business based at the Hall of Yenstay, the
family farm for seven generations. The butchery business was started by Thorfinn’s
father Eddie in the 1970’s initially to prepare other farmer’s
meat for their own freezers but Eddie’s reputation as a skilled butcher
spread and the business grew steadily.
Eddie retired in 1995 and Thorfinn and Katherine took over the business:
their continued attention to detail and quality built it into Orkney’s
largest wholesale supplier. In 2003 demand was such that a state-of-the-art
butchery and processing premises was built at the farm: this presently employs
five time-served butchers and supplies most of the hotels, restaurants and
retail butchers in Orkney as well as a growing number of customers throughout
the UK.
Rickla was built by Stewart & Jacky Anderson in 1995 as a bed & breakfast
and from opening has been the premier accommodation in Orkney. 5-star status
was gained in 2002 and Rickla won the “tourism Oscar” Thistle
Award for Customer Service in 2006. In 2006 the business expanded to include
5* self-catering and continues to rank in the top five of all accommodation
in Scotland.
Visitors to Rickla have long commented on the quality of the meat they had
eaten in the better hotels and restaurants around Orkney: unknown to them,
the majority of this meat was provided by E R & T Craigie whose attention
to quality has made them by far the largest wholesale butchers on the
Island.
The Rickla breakfast menu featured sausages and
other products from ER & T Craigie. Like the beef and lamb in the
restaurants, these were so different in texture and flavour from what they
were used to that visitors regularly asked where they could obtain supplies
to take home with them.
Both E R & T Craigie and Rickla have reputations far beyond Orkney and
both businesses have identical motivation – an absolute passion for
quality coupled with a belief that it is not enough to meet a customer’s
expectations – the aim is to exceed them
Orkney’s visitors come for many different reasons – birds, fishing
(it’s trout, and all free…) walking and the archaeology are
only a few. Many return year after year just because it’s a lovely
place, an oasis of peace and calm and clean air. But it’s rather
a long way to come for the Sunday joint or a pack of sausages so to make
life easier we have set up www.orkneysbest.co.uk
Our aim is very simple: to provide you with the best. Orkney’s
Best.