A haven for meat lovers

By Hazel Tan HUBER'S Butchery's decision to set up an online butchery store, in addition to its physical shop, has paid off. Brothers Ryan and Andre Huber, who established Huber's in 2007, learnt the trade from their Swiss father Ernst, who studied butchery and cooking in Switzerland. The name today is synonymous with fine meats in Singapore. From 10 employees, the staff has grown to 130, and the butchery sells about 1 million kg of meat annually. Its focus has also expanded from wholesale to retail - opening a 50-seat bistro and an online shop (www.hubers.com.sg) with its very own YouTube channel that has a following of 10,000 and growing. Its video "How to cook steaks the traditional way" has more than 2.8 million views to date.

Mr Huber says customers called the salesman to find out when deliveries would be made. The salesperson would then have to call the office, check which driver delivered to that location and then call the driver.

"This process wasted a lot of time. Sometimes when we can't get hold of the driver, the customer has to wait for a long time before being notified.

"With the app, the driver just needs to click on the delivered tab and take a picture of the signed invoice upon delivery. This picture is automatically e-mailed to the customer and to the Huber's e-mail address as the proof of purchase. This is why our call centre gets fewer calls asking for certified true copies of missing invoices these days," he explains While business disruption is becoming the norm, those who are in the business of making food retain their appeal,believes Mr Huber. "The way we deliver food to the consumer may be disrupted, but the traditional way of making food is still the best. We are constantly on the lookout for the latest trends and technology to help our business become more productive and relevant," he adds.