A few months ago, James Haig was making plans to get out of Aberdeen.
“The city centre back then… it was tough,” says the owner of Haig’s Food Hall, the Schoolhill butcher’s and specialist supermarket he started with wife Julie about a decade ago.
“A lot of shops were closing and the rent and rates were so expensive. So we thought, you know what? We need something different.”
The couple had their eye on out-of-town retail parks – somewhere with a car park and room for expansion. But when their landlord offered them improved terms and the security of a 15-year lease, James and Julie rethought their plans.
By then, they had seen enough improvements in the city centre to believe that it was ready to spring back from the pandemic. All it needed was a few brave souls to show some faith.
For James and Julia, that faith comes in the form of a £200,000 refurbishment of Haig’s. It is an overhaul that could reshape their corner of city centre.
And, if everything goes to plan, even usher in the dawn of a 24-hour Aberdeen.
An Aberdeen city centre stalwart
In a decade of business, Haig’s has built a reputation as a place for packaged lean meats – typically, cuts of beef with less than 5% fat.
For the overhaul, James has doubled down on the healthy angle, while at the same time expanding as a place to pick up a takeaway meal.
Haig’s already has a butchery on the first floor – a room full of gleaming stainless steel that James, a master butcher, shows off with pride.
Couple this with the new, enlarged food prep area and a deli-style food counter James is building, and Haig’s will be able to make and serve takeaway meals unlike anything else in Aberdeen.
“Things like little slider burgers, meatballs, a lot of pulled meats that involve overnight prep on our new machines,” James says. “Pulled lamb, pulled duck. And really healthy stuff, with daily specials.”
The 51-year-old has coined the slogan “Say aye to nae fry” for the new venture, which will focus on oven-cooking food, a healthier alternative to the usual takeaway deep frying.
James is perhaps as proud of the new top-of-the-line ovens he’s bought as he is about his butchery. Standing in front of them, he shows how they cook without frying, making their output much lower in fat.
He plans to put smash burgers, brisket burgers and other on-trend dishes on the menu.
For dessert, his eye is on eventually making things like hot-sauce stuffed cones, dipped cones, and hot desserts finished with whipped cream
“Between the butchery and the downstairs bakery, along with the improved kitchen, there’s nothing we can’t make,” James says.
Aberdeen – the 24-hour city?
The grand opening for this new incarnation of Haig’s is on Wednesday May 11, and James and Julie are busy with final preparations for the big day.
But this doesn’t stop them from voicing their hopes for what the expansion of Haig’s could mean for Aberdeen.
“Aberdeen has been dire the past two years but it is getting better,” says Julie. “It just needs someone with a lot of vision.”
James adds: “It is changing. There is the Art Gallery, and [the soon-to-reopen] Union Terrace Gardens – the footfall from there will help.”
And in a place the size of Aberdeen, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Or, as James put it: “If Boots are busy, then we are busy.”
But the couple’s hopes go even further.
Once the refurbishment is settled in and customers know what Haig’s is doing, James wants to expand the shop’s current opening times to one continuous shift from Thursday morning through to Sunday evening.
The move, he suggests, could precipitate the rise of a 24-hour food culture already in place in cities such as New York, London and Paris.
“You’ll be able to get everything,” says James, who discusses launching discounts for people working nights – the bouncers, the police – so they can get healthy options during unsociable hours.
The idea came to him when he was trying to work out how to make more money from the takeaway.
“It’s because I’m a businessman,” he says, before adding with a laugh: “And because I’ve got to pay for this refit.”
