A homegrown Vanderhoof butchery, The Speckled Sow, has snagged a prestigious provincial award as one of the top small businesses in B.C.
Brittany Giesbrecht and her husband Matt Giesbrecht, owners of The Speckled Sow, took home the Business Impact Award from the Small Business BC Awards held in Vancouver, June 2.
The couple was chosen out of 613 nominees from 84 B.C. communities. They were narrowed down to the top five finalists based on more than 74,000 public votes and written responses judged by business experts. Finalists pitched their businesses to a panel of B.C. business leaders, who then selected the winner of each award category.
The Giesbrechts were excited to represent northern B.C. on a provincial platform.
“We are truly honoured and humbled to have won the Small Business BC Best Impact Award,” said Brittany.
“We are beyond grateful to have been nominated for this award and we stand loud and proud for our northern region and our community of Vanderhoof,” she said.
The whole experience of the last three months leading up to the actual awards have been “really cool,” Brittany said.
“We made a lot of connections and learned a lot of stuff, we’re really proud of ourselves and really humbled honestly,” she added.
In a statement released by the Small Business BC Awards judges, it read the Giesbrechts “clearly love the work they do and that inspiration to bring that farm-to-table spirit to Vanderhoof shines. Through their business journey, they have remained committed to serving their community.”
The Vanderhoof couple officially started their business in 2017 after recognizing the limited options for hunters and farmers to have their animals processed. They now deliver meat across northern B.C. communities all the way to Haida Gwaii.
They aim to provide local areas with real meat not processed in a giant factory.
“There was a lack of facilities for meat processing and we wanted to help local farmers and hunters,” Brittany told the Omineca Express in April when they were announced as finalists for the award.
READ MORE: Vanderhoof butchery a finalist for prestigious Small Business BC Awards