A day at Jon Thorner's
Lots of people always ask us what goes on behind the scenes at Jon Thorner’s HQ, so we thought we’d give you an opportunity of a quick tour of a typical day at Jon Thorner’s!
As there are so many separate activities going on throughout the day the photos have been broken up by department to give you a hint of the scale of the operation. Please click on the links below to navigate to the respective information.
~ Goods In
~ Storage
~ Production – Butchers
~ Production – Mincing
~ Production – Sausages *VIDEO*
~ Production – Kitchens
~ Production – Cooked Foods
~ Production – Packing
~ Office
~ Farm Shop
~ Goods Out
We offer occasional group visits for schools and colleges. For further information or to arrange a possible group site visit, please contacts us. We also work with a network of local farms to offer group visits to various farming locations.
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Goods In
From 05.00 deliveries arrive; meat from the local slaughter house supplied by the many local farms, fresh produce from the many local suppliers and of course a multitude of other foods, ingredients and supplies continue arriving throughout the day.
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Storage
The stock is stored in a wide range of state of the art computer controlled refrigeration rooms located throughout the building and continuously monitored to ensure optimum operating temperatures are constantly maintained.
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Production - Butchers
Our butchers are highly skilled at preparing the variety of cuts of meat for packing. The speed with which they work is incredible to watch.
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Production - Mincing
Fresh local meat is minced and then weighed out by hand into separate containers, sealed, labelled and put out in the butchery counters and farm shops for sale.
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Production - Sausages
Our famous sausages are made just metres from the counter in our Pylle farm shop. First the local meat is minced and mixed ready for the sausage making machine. Then the sausages are created one flavour at a time, and we currently have 20!
The sausage making in action, watch the video by selecting the link below:
Jon Thorner's Sausage Making Machine (3.87mb)
Jon Thorner's Sausage Making Machine (YouTube)
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Production - Kitchens
Our chefs hand prepare and cook our wide range of luxury ready meals from the finest local ingredients. Convenient, healthy, local, home-cooked meals ready for you to heat and serve.
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Production – Cooked Foods
Ready to eat foods from local suppliers are delivered to the other end of the building adjacent to the kitchens ensuring safe separation from the butchery. For example; cheese and butter from Barbers just down the road at Ditchet, also pates and some cooked meats. The foods are then portioned and or sliced, packaged and labelled prior to going on sale in the farm shops or through to goods out.
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Production – Packing
All the foods which are prepared are packaged using a variety of different machines in different areas of the building. A centrally controlled computer system prints labels for each product and the products are then grouped for despatch either into the farm shop or into the goods out system.
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Office
The office is the centre of coordination of all the operations at Jon Thorner’s. General office tasks include; handling orders, accounts, coordinating activity downstairs as well as marketing and administration tasks to ensure the company moves forwards.
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Farm Shop
Jon Thorner’s have a number of farm shops and butchery counters in a range of locations across Somerset and the South West. The shops sell the wide range of meats and fine foods Jon Thorner’s have become famous for. The pictures below are of the Pylle Farm Shop.
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Goods Out
Finally the meat and fine foods ordered, prepared, packed and labelled, which are not sold directly in the Pylle Farm Shop, are sent out. These go to a wide range of customers which include over 70 schools, restaurants, farm shops, hotels, corner stores, our own butchery counters and third party distributors supplying the wider South West region. All on the way to you the customer!
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We hope “A day at Jon Thorner’s” has been interesting and welcome your comments.
Please contact us with any thoughts or ideas you have: Contact Us
"I always buy meat from Thorners because I know and trust that the welfare of the animals/poultry is well monitored. Jon Thorner always sources produce from trustworthy people. Many thanks for wonderful produce."
Diane Adlington