Provincial Meats of South Morang to close after the site’s land was sold to a developer

PROVINCIAL Meats butchers will hang up the knives after more than 50 years serving customers in South Morang and Mernda.

Jan Andrews, Tri Phan, Anita Huyng, Rosmarree Megna, Fil Nardella, Stewart Melloy, Hana Provenzano, Bill Irinous, Tom Johnson, Doreen Robinson and Peter Chislom bid farewell to Provincial Meats. Picture: Ellen Smith

PROVINCIAL Meats butchers will hang up the knives after more than 50 years serving customers in South Morang and Mernda.

Provincial Meats on Plenty Rd will close its doors for good on June 3.

Owner Hana Provenzano, 73, said she had decided to retire and had not been able to sell the business as an ongoing venture.

The site’s land has been bought by Gibson Property Corporation, casting doubts on the store’s future at the location. A spokesman for the corporation declined to say what the land would be used for. The butcher’s closure will see the loss of 20 jobs and ending a 52-year run of the store being used to sell fresh produce.

The closure would hit the staff, who were “like a family” hard, Mrs Provenzano said.

“We have been involved in each other’s and the community’s lives for so long. It’s going to be really hard.”

Much had changed in Mernda since she took ownership of the store 11 years ago.

Mrs Provenzano took over the store after her husband Antonio died.

Mr Provenzano bought the store from Tasman Meats in 1999 and originally called the store Plenty Valley Producers Pty Ltd.

In 2005 Mr Provenzano renamed the store Provincial Meats Pty Ltd and ran it with Tony Salvucci as his manager and partner.

It had also been a chicken processing plant and small goods firm.

The store would trade as usual until it closed its doors on June 3.