BARRONS of Beef has celebrated 35 years in business by rewarding its loyal customers with cut-price weekly meat packs.

The Chorley Old Road shop has built up 4,500 Facebook “likes” which is proving brothers Phil and Jonathan Barron’s theory that there is still a place for specialist quality butchers on the high street.

Using the social media network to promote their products was the brainchild of Phil’s wife Claire, who successfully runs a children’s clothing company using Facebook.

“My idea has been copied by many other people,” said Claire. “It works perfectly for the butchers’ shop. We offer weekly meat packs for the average family, usually at £40. But to celebrate our anniversary we sold the first 35 people to order their meat packs online at £20 each.”

The Barron family are only the fourth owners of the 100-year-old butchery outlet. Phil and Jonathan’s father Peter took over the shop from Jim and Ruby O’Hare in 1978.

And they have been unfazed by competition nearby at the Chorley Old Road Morrisons.

“What we do here is very high quality,” said Phil. “It does not really compare to anything you can get in a supermarket. We have found if we keep our standards very high, people get what we’re trying to do, and they buy.”

Barrons’ butcher William Ross was recently in the running to prove he can make one of the best bangers in the UK in a competition judged by celebrity chef Simon Rimmer. The 22-year-old was selected to take part in a cook-off at Sam’s Chop House in Leeds, after his pork, cabbage and bacon recipe was selected for inclusion in the quest to Discover Britain’s Greatest Sausage.

Phil Barron, aged 37, is no stranger to success either. He was runner-up in the competition to find the UK’s best butcher when he was just 18 years old.