Ex-C & K Meats brother launches new Suffolk pub business

Kevin Burrows has become licensee at Legends Sports Bar at Stonham Barns Park near Debenham.

He and brother Chris created a highly successful abattoir and meat business - C & K Meats of Eye - before selling up in 2019. Then, early in 2020, the pandemic struck - putting all lives on hold.

The £26.5m turnover slaughterhouse business employing 140 staff was taken over by German food giants Tönnies Group.

The brothers launched the award-winning firm in 1994 - but the family butchery tradition stretches back more than 200 years.

Chris was keen to retire - but younger brother Kevin, now 58, admits he didn't enjoy sitting at home during the pandemic and was keen to get his teeth into something.

"I retired at 55 and we have been out of the business for three and a half years. An opportunity came up here (at Stonham Barns) and I took on the village store here last year and I passed that over to my manager," he explains. 

Kevin, of Brome, near Eye, was chatting with park owner Alan Forward and the chance to launch the park's new Legends Sports Bar came up. 

He took it on on February 1, 2023, with the support of his family - wife Paula, sons Joe and Shane and daughter Samantha.

He's giving it a year to see how it develops, he says. He wanted to create a "nice local" serving the local community and serving food and drink. The old village pub, The Ten Bells at Stonham Aspal, closed in 2013 - leaving villagers without a pub.

"I enjoy the food - I do the cooking at the moment - basically burger and fish and chips and things - we would like to get a chef on board," he says.

"Local people haven't realised we are here yet and we want to make this our local place really. We would love all the local people to take this on as their local pub."

At 7,000sq ft it's a large space offering lots of opportunities.

"I just saw the space and loved it - I fell in love with the whole place really," says Kevin.

A karaoke night with Sarah May of Shout Karaoke drew around 100 people and showed its potential, he says. He also plans to run weddings and corporate events from The Barn, another venue on the park.

Although the hospitality industry is a little different to his previous meat business, he is not fazed at all. As well as the abattoir, C & K at one time ran two butchers shops and a steakhouse and bar.

"All businesses are businesses and they have got their own individual needs and wants and problems," he says.

"You have got to challenge yourself. If you don't challenge yourself every day what's the purpose of life? And I'm a Suffolk boy born and bred so this is close to my heart. I think Suffolk is one of the best places to live in the country."

Another of Kevin's recent business sidelines is a CBD company called Heaven's Hemp which makes a range of mail-order ointments from a legal cannabis crop grown in a farm in Thailand.

The bar business will provide an outlet for one of Kevin's favourite pastimes.

As a youngster of 14, he worked behind a bar at his uncle's pub - the Crowfield Rose at Pettaugh. It was there that he developed a lifelong love of darts.

He joined the darts circuit before the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and Professional Darts Council (PDC) split and travelled around the world - achieving a ranking was 14th in the world at one point.

"I have kept darts as a lifelong passion along with many other sports interests. This is why I decided to put my energy into running these entertainment venues at Stonham Barns Park," he explains.

"The Suffolk Super Series County darts events are already set up for this year with sponsorship by Evolution Darts of Stowmarket and Heavens Hemp."

The hope is to draw the community of Mid Suffolk - as well as Norfolk and Suffolk as a whole - to Stonham Barns during the summer months.

Social activities linked to the park's Golf Centre, big screen sports coverage in the bar and Sunday lunches are among the areas that Kevin is keen to develop.

"It’s a far cry from what I did in my past life, but I love it," he says.

"I couldn’t be happier than to go back to my roots. My aim is to create a leisure venue that people can rely on to entertain them - somewhere they can meet friends and family - and that will keep me motivated in my so-called retirement."