Teenage Manjimup Meat Mart owner wins three gold medals at Statewide butcher award

A teenage butcher has sliced and diced his way to a Statewide gong after taking over his family business at just 17-years-old. Cooper Ebsary recently took over his father’s business Manjimup Meat Mart after completing his apprenticeship and has already secured three gold medals for his produce at the regional Australian Meat Industry Council 2022 Retail Competitions last month. On top of his three top prizes, the youngster also claimed a silver and two bronzes across the categories of regional sausage king, best butchers burger, and smallgoods. His pork and Bravo apple sausage, taco beef sausage, and black Angus beef burger, were huge hits at the event and took out the coveted first place prizes to the delight of his team at MMM. ”It was a thing for me to go into this year and have a little bit of a play around with,” he said. “My first year taking out three first places in the State was a big achievement. “Next year I want to go bigger and better and try and take out a bit more.” Cooper also claimed one silver and a bronze at the WA State Final 2022 for the AMIC Retail Competitions in October. The young CEO said he had the opportunity to take over the family business after his father was diagnosed with cancer. “I had the option to take it on or close the doors, so I gave it a crack,” he said. “It definitely was a long shot, a hard gig, but I adapted and got used to it pretty quickly. “I was 16 and two months when I got completely qualified and that’s when I started taking over the shop. It took me the first few weeks to get a hold of everything then it was just go from there.” Cooper said he wanted to be a butcher for as long as he could remember, taking every opportunity to work with his father from an early age. “My old man had factories and butcher shops in Perth, and took out all of these butcher awards and since day dot I always wanted to be like him,” he said. “I just love to do it, I’ve been a clean up kid since we moved down here and I always learnt and watched and listened to him.” Cooper said while he was keen to continue to enter competitions, his next focus was to get through Christmas, which was a busy time of year for the popular butcher shop. He said he was grateful to his family and the team at the store who had supported him over the past few years. “My uncle is there with me every step of the way and I’ve got an awesome group at the back that’s always supporting me and helping me out,” he said. “I’m very grateful for Mum who does the accounting, I’m grateful for having her around and dealing with everything. “A big thanks to the old man as well for teaching me everything I know and getting me to where I am at the moment.”