Somerset West meat lovers will soon have a new reason to fire up the braai. The Grounds Meat & Deli, a boutique butchery and deli born from a four-generation family legacy, opens its second store on Thursday 17 September, bringing premium cuts, artisanal deli lines and a passion for quality to the heart of the Helderberg.

Founders Simon Parker and Brent te Roller say it is a homecoming of sorts. “We have been in the community for a long time and wanted to offer what we do to this potential client base; our kids go to school in the area,” ” Parker says.

Both believe Somerset West is a community to which their brand would appeal.

As a boutique butchery The Grounds Meat & Deli pairs a carefully curated, boutique-styled shopping experience with a vast range of everyday and not-so-everyday meat lines at competitive prices, offering customers the best of both worlds without compromising on quality.

The store offers beef from specific breeds, including Jersey, Holstein, Geelvet, Angus, Wagyu and Beefmaster, alongside Winelands Pork, Riebeek Kasteel lamb, Lazena free-range chicken and Usana eggs. “We support local where we can,” says Te Roller, noting the store stocks both locally made and artisanal products.

Items that keep customers coming back include droëwors, boerewors and biltong. The founders suggest the signature list is full enough for consumers to venture in and have a look.

Meeting place

The Grounds Meat & Deli is described as a meeting place for the community. “It’s our passion expressed through the product we sell,” says Parker.

The Somerset West store is slightly bigger than the existing location at 76 Edward Road, Bellville, but carries the same philosophy. “When you don’t have a big cheque book behind advertising spend, you rely on good service, good product, in a really tastefully boutique-styled shopping experience which offers something for everyone. That has remained our core focus.”

The new store will create between 25 and 30 jobs, and the founders want it to be something the community can be proud of and show to friends and family.

Proudest achievement

Being a customer’s favourite store they regard as their proudest achievement. “We are proud of our customers who took a chance on us,” Te Roller points out.

That pride is rooted in a legacy spanning four generations and two continents. The Te Roller family’s roots in the meat trade stretch back to the Netherlands, where Willem Anné te Roller was born in Winterswijk in 1914 into a family that had run a retail butchery for generations. He served in Italy during World War II, and it’s where he met his wife, Adele, from Ortona. They married in 1946 and settled in Bredell, Kempton Park, opening their own butchery in 1949, in an era of sawdust floors and strict trading hours.

Tradition continues

When Willem died in 1963 Adele carried the family forward. She had become South Africa’s first qualified female blockman in 1959, and in 1965 reopened the business as Biladele. Her sons Hendrik, Luigi and Willem Anné worked alongside her from a young age.

Luigi trained as a butcher and moved to the Cape in 1978. The following year he and his brothers Hendrik and Willem Anné founded Ranch Meat Centres in the Western Cape.

Hendrik, who had spent nearly 20 years in pharmaceuticals gaining expertise in quality control and production systems, joined Luigi in 1988. The two formed an equal partnership: Luigi brought the butchery craft, Hendrik the systems and hygiene standards.

At its peak Ranch Meat Centres employed more than 354 staff, turned over R20 million monthly, and supplied Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Checkers and Spur restaurants across 12 stores. After more than seven decades in the trade, Hendrik and Luigi retired in February 2026.

The next generation carried the craft forward, with Luigi’s eldest daughter establishing a successful operation in Italy, bringing the family business full circle back to Europe. It was from this lineage that Parker and Te Roller established The Grounds Meat & Deli in 2023, returning to what they do best without the constraints of corporate oversight.

As for further expansion they are firm: two stores is the limit. “We do not think we will do more than two,” they said.

The Somerset West store, at 47 Caledon Street, the old Michael’s Arcade, opens tomorrow (Thursday 17 September), with launch specials and events planned. Operating hours are Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 18:00, Saturday from 08:00 to 16:00, and Sunday from 09:00 to 14:00.