'Turkey night' helps Priam supply more than 2000 Christmas turkeys across the region

It’s all hands on deck as Queanbeyan meat distributor Priam gears up for its biggest night of the year, ‘turkey night’.

If you live within a day’s drive of the NSW town of Queanbeyan, you’ve likely eaten meats supplied by Priam.

Founded by Peter and Valerie Gowland in 1982, Priam is well established in the region and supplies more than 1000 pubs, restaurants, butchers, cafes and private clients with high-quality meats.

From their base on Australis Place, they canvas the state in their fleet of refrigerated trucks and vans, heading up through Canberra, the Southern Highlands, into the Central West, across the Riverina and down to the South Coast.

“If it’s within a day’s return trip of Queanbeyan, we supply it,” says distribution manager Michael Chatto.

Originally building its name with the sourcing and supply of venison, Priam still deals in game meats and rare cuts of meat, including crocodile, kangaroo, wallaby and rabbit, but the backbone of the business is now your more commonly eaten meats – lamb, beef and pork. More than just a logistics company, they butcher their own meats as well.

In the lead up to Christmas, Priam is scaling up its operations to meet the demand of a hungry state and Michael is leading the charge.

“With Christmas falling in the middle of the week this year, it adds some logistical challenges for us. We’ve already well and truly scaled up for the Christmas party season, but in those few days in the lead up to Christmas, we’ll have all our vans out there going hell for leather,” says Michael.

Priam already has more than 2000 turkey orders and 2000 ham orders on the books as of early December and is expecting an increase across the month and while the whole month sees increased demand, it all comes together on one big night of the year.

“Every year we have what we call turkey night; this year it falls on 18 December, and it’s all hands on deck so we can load up all the trucks with the Christmas Day turkeys that we transport around the state,” explains Michael.

Turkey night has become a tradition in this family led business where the employees enjoy the benefits of working with engaged and involved owners.

“Pete and Val run a very family orientated business; they’re good bosses. Pete cooks the staff a barbecue every Friday,” says Michael.

Michael credits the long-term success of the business to the relationships they’ve built across the region through their strategy of hiring ex-chefs who have their finger on the pulse of what the region is after.

They are also one of only a few wholesalers offering Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grading. The MSA grading system is a voluntary certification designed to increase consistency in the supply chain. It allows Priam to supply its beef and lamb with a 3- to 5-star grading so the consumer knows what quality they are purchasing.

In recent years the Gowland family has branched out from meat supply and has a number of other arms to the business.

Some of these new arms, such as the supply of native berries, seeds, nuts and spices, complement their meat distribution.

Others, such as the Priam Psittaculture Centre, which works with threatened and endangered birds and wildlife, are a departure from the business they built their name on, but all come under the Priam banner.

With all aspects of the business keeping the family and staff busy year-round, Boxing Day doesn’t wrap up the silly season for Priam. As Canberrans head towards the South Coast for January, Priam redirects its focus to ensure enough product is in the hands of its South Coast clients, as no matter where people are, they’ve got to eat.

For more information, check out the Priam Meats website.

Original Article published by Tenele Conway on About Regional.