Bureaucracy: Quint butcher shop closes after 96 years

The Quint butcher shop will cease production on March 31. It wasn't planned at all. Company CEO Theresia Quint wanted to invest five million euros. But bureaucracy thwarted her plans.

This article is part of the special topic Bureaucratic madness in the craft industry

Theresia Quint wanted to invest around five million euros in a renovation and new construction of their butcher shop – a family business from Kenn near Trier, which would have celebrated its 100th anniversary in four years. But the Bureaucracy and slow administration thwarted her plans. The process from the initial building application in 2021 to the building permit in October 2023 ultimately took too long. Instead of investing, the entrepreneur will cease production entirely at the end of March. 

The process from the initial building application in 2021 to the building permit in October 2023 ultimately took too long. Fire safety requirements and those of the veterinary office repeatedly clashed. New plans were needed. Decisions were delayedbecause government employees were on vacation or sick. "Files were shuffled around or not processed at all for half a year," reports Theresia Quint, who entrepreneurial thinking in administration and Cooperation between authorities missing.

The building permit also came too late for the funding application

In the meantime, construction costs exploded, and the economic situation and the skilled labor market changed. The building permit ultimately came too late to apply for funding. To do so, the company would have had to issue tenders within two months of receiving the building permit, obtaining three bids for each bid. The project was supposed to be completed and operational by the end of 2024. "The timeframe was unrealistic, so we had to make a quick decision."

On 24 January, the decision was announced that the 1928-founded Butcher's will cease production on 31 March 2024. In the past three years, one thing led to another: first the delay in the building permit and, in the meantime, the increased energy coststhe changed consumer behavior, the height Inflation, credentials for interest rate turnaround and last but not least the Skills shortage.

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In 2023, the family business celebrated the switch to 100 percent organicTen years of hard work and dedication went into the restructuring. The new building was also intended to increase production energetically up to date "I now have to sell the equipment I already purchased at a loss," says the entrepreneur, who ran the butcher shop for 20 years.

Industry standards are imposed on small businesses

Together with her son Luis Sanktjohanser It still operates several Edeka stores in Trier and now wants to focus on food retail – especially since one of the stores is currently being redesigned. "Everything has simply become too bureaucratic, so we can no longer operate in all areas." In the city of Trier, cooperation with the administration is going extremely well. "They sat down with us as developers and tried to work together to find solutions that work for both sides."

Theresia Quint is still waiting for a clarifying call from the Trier-Saarburg district. The district administrator and the state premier have also not responded. It's not a sign of solidarity, she says, to court large corporations while putting obstacles in the way of small businesses that want to do something and are committed to the region. Or to design standards – in the area of ​​hygiene, for example – for industry and then impose them one-to-one on smaller businesses. Or to not enforce the same strict requirements imposed on a butcher shop with the same level of rigor when it comes to mobile chicken roasters. "It all just doesn't add up anymore; we're overburdening ourselves with bureaucracy."  

Bureaucracy: The biggest concern in the butcher trade In autumn 2023, the German Butchers' Association surveyed member companies about the situation in their businesses. The results revealed that bureaucracy was the biggest concern for companies. According to the industry portal, just over 90 percent of butchers said fleischwirtschaft.dethat increasing bureaucratization is a concern. Over 60 percent even describe their concerns as serious. Bureaucracy is a greater burden than the shortage of skilled workers or rising energy costs. 

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