Who are we?
We are a family owned and operated business in Southern Alberta. We are 3rd and 4th generation butchers bringing you the European style of butchering and sausage making. Since our great/grandfather started a butcher shop in 1923 in the Netherlands, the butchering trade has been carried down from father to son since then. We take great pride in offering you a wide variety of top-quality products as well as European style butchering services!
On the right you see one of the rare pictures we have of Willem Anker, our great/grand father that started the butchering business back in 1923. On this picture he was butchering a pig at a local farmer. Notice the kettle in the farmers hand? That was filled with hot water and poured over the skin of the dead pig. By warming up the skin and hairs they could then scrape off the hairs with a knife.
Willem Anker, first generation butcher - photo from circa 1923
On the right are Ben Anker (son of Willem Anker) and Wim Anker (son of Ben Anker). Ben followed his fathers footsteps and carried on with the butcher shop as did Wim Anker after going to school for 4 years at the Slagers Vak School (Butcher Trade School). In 2000 they opened a second butcher shop. Together with his younger brother Marty they managed the two butchershops until 2010. In 2010 Ben Anker retired, Wim wanted to move to Canada and Marty wanted to move to a different part in the Netherlands and thus the butcher shops got resolved.
Ben Anker (2nd gen) and Willem Anker (3rd gen)
Wim Anker moved to Southern Alberta in 2010 with his wife Karen and their four children; Lesley, Bennardo, Belinda, and Cees.
After working as a foreman for a local feedlot for seven years and cattle buyer for two years, the request for another butcher in the area became apparent. In the winter of 2018/19 an extensive renovation of the shop got completed at Wim’s farm in order to become a licensed process facility and that is when Dutch Grill Ltd. was born.
Wim Anker (3rd gen) in Alberta, Canada
