First Generation: Charlie & Jean

Our company history starts with Charlie and Jean Macsween who established Macsween’s first retail butcher’s shop in Bruntsfield, South Edinburgh, in 1953.

Charlie and Jean met while working at Orr’s, an upmarket butcher’s emporium in George Street, central Edinburgh.  Charlie worked his way up to the position of manager of the store, while Jean worked in the accounts department.

Orr’s was ahead of its time with the segregation of raw and cooked meats, its own in-house slaughter house, and even a dedicated engineer to look after their fleet of vans.  Charlie could not have had a better preparation for running his own business than his time in this wonderful emporium.

When Mr Orr died and the company ceased to trade, Charlie and Jean went into business together in Bruntsfield.  Post-war rationing was still part of daily life in the early 1950s and Charlie initially feared that his customers from Orr's might not travel the mile and a half across town to their new shop, ‘Charles Macsween’.

However, the business was an immediate success, and soon expanded.  A fleet of vans was soon delivering quality meat to private and wholesale customers all over Edinburgh.  Like all good butchers of the time, ‘Charles Macsween’ made a range of home-made products such as pies, sausages and the now famous haggis.  The business quickly established a reputation for quality and its wide range of all meats and game.

Charlie was always happiest working at his butcher's block, being readily available to serve customers personally in the shop, while Jean oversaw the administration of the office.