Heritage Craft Butchers closes up shop
Bob Von Scio admitted it was a tough decision to make.
But Heritage Craft Butchers has recently closed its shops in Washington and Marianna.
Von Scio posted a message on the company鈥檚 Facebook page on Feb. 8 announcing the closure, stating it was a message that he wasn鈥檛 鈥渓ooking forward to writing, posting, or getting notifications of views, comments, and reactions.鈥�
Heritage Craft Butchers opened in Marianna Jan. 1, 2019. A retail shop in Waynesburg closed last summer after being open for two years. The Washington shop opened in September 2020 at 243 S. Main St.
Von Scio, a Greene County resident, categorized January as 鈥渃atastrophic鈥� for the company, even referring to the month as a 鈥渂loodbath鈥� on Facebook. He said 2021 closed out strongly and a plan was in place for 2022. But factors such as COVID-19 and the weather reared their ugly heads.
鈥淓verybody got COVID over a 10-day period,鈥� Von Scio said, a tough blow to a company with just nine employees. 鈥淭hat hampered our production to start the month.鈥�
Plus, the big snowstorms that hit the area in January also didn鈥檛 help, bringing about another couple of weeks of sub-par business.
鈥淚n this business, you always have to be rolling one week into the next to maintain momentum and we lost that momentum,鈥� Von Scio said. 鈥淥ur customer counts and our sales just didn鈥檛 come back.
鈥淚 hate having to let down our employees,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very close-knit group we have here. I want to give them the moon and the stars. It was an agonizing decision to take away their income and their vocation.鈥�
Steps are being taken to find them new employment.
鈥淲e鈥檝e gotten emails and messages from people who are interested in hiring some of our employees,鈥� Von Scio said. 鈥淚鈥檝e met a lot of people in the industry, and I will be trying to leverage those contacts and make sure as many of our employees move on to bigger and better things without any hiccup.鈥�
About five hours after the post on the Facebook page, there were 150 comments from people, many expressing sadness about the news of the closing of the business.
鈥淭he support we鈥檝e gotten from customers has been overwhelmingly positive,鈥� Von Scio said. 鈥淚t feels really good. Our customers have been incredible.鈥�
Von Scio said there will be a liquidation auction as soon as possible to sell off all equipment and the building in Marianna, unless someone wants to buy the business in its entirety.
Future plans for Von Scio include starting a podcast and a YouTube channel focusing on the process of creating food with instruction on subjects such as how to create a meal with items within 100 yards of your kitchen table.
鈥淚 can talk about these little niche products that people can make in their home kitchen,鈥� he said.
For now, it鈥檚 realizing the tough decision to close up shop.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to admit defeat and say this is over,鈥� Von Scio said.