TIM Potter's Family Butchers has been named the 'best butcher shop in the South West.'

The Fore Street butchers took the top spot in the Taste of the West Awards at an awards ceremony held in Exeter, on Monday, November 6.

Hosted in the Exeter Chief's ground, the contest saw nearly 500 businesses vying for poll position across a number of categories.

Front of house staff member, Marcus Fudge, attended the event with Tim's wife Pam, daughter Kate, son Chris, and Chris's fiancé Haley. Marcus said: "It feels very good to win, we are over the moon, it was a brilliant night.  "There were around 470 contenders from across the region. It was good competition, there were some people that we know as well across the categories and it was nice to cheer them on.  "We had a Mr Chopper, an independent judge visit the premises, talk with the staff and buy some products to test out."

Tim Potter's team were sitting across from the Rumwell Farm Shop during the event, with both local businesses fighting it out to nab the top spot in the 'best beef burger' category. Marcus explained: "Tim’s son Chris entered us into the shop category – we were there for the best beef burger category too - we got down to the last four. Rumwell Farm Shop ended up pinching that one from us, they were on the table next to us which was nice and we know a lot of the guys from Rumwell." A contest judge told of how he was 'seriously impressed' by the family-run shop. he said: “Outstanding! I can’t really say much more. I have already gone out of my way to recommend them to others in the world of food. I was seriously impressed. You need to trust your butcher, but you also need to have the quality of the product coming through on the plate and they excelled in both areas - nothing let them down.”

Tim Potter will be adding the fresh accolade to his trophy collection - and said he might now need to build a new trophy shelf to fit them all on. He said: "We may have to make a new trophy shelf. We have a nice framed certificate which will probably go on top of the counter.  "The competition is from Bristol all the way down, so we did very well. I am proud – we had a mystery shopper come in and he picked up this that and the other. He was a very nice chap actually, he said how nice the shop was while he was here and obviously we made a bit of an impression because we won.  "I don’t know what we are going to do to celebrate, but we’ll get round to it sometime this week I’m sure, perhaps a little meal with the family."