80-Year Old Brisbane Butchery Shuts as Prawn Giant Axes 200 Jobs

An historic Brisbane butchery has closed its doors after more than 80 years in operation.

The story of Jack Purcell Meats is a piece of history itself.

The business was named in honour of Jack Purcell, who served 704 days in the Australian Defence Force during World War II as an army butcher.

At the same time, he operated a small butcher shop in the Gold Coast suburbs of Miami and Currumbin.

In 1943, Purcell opened up a store in Brisbane’s Northgate and business boomed.

At one stage, Purcell operated 23 butcheries and a grocery store.

The chain brought success through the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s before Purcell sold off several prior to his retirement in 1980.

But the business stayed in the family, with his descendants carrying on the Purcell tradition with a large meat showroom in the Brisbane suburb of Virginia and wholesale services.

But a notice posted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission reveals the Jack Purcell chapter has come to a close.

Alan Walker of Asset Restructuring Group was appointed liquidator to wrap up operations for Snag Pty Ltd ATF the Snag Investment Trust, trading as Jack Purcell Meats.

The Epoch Times contacted Jack Purcell Meats for comment.

Jack Purcell Meats’ finale comes just weeks after another major food wholesaler announced its end.

Largest Prawn Catcher Also Set to Close

One of Australia’s largest wild-caught prawn operators and wholesalers A. Raptis and Sons Group is set to close after administrators failed to find a buyer for the business.

First established in the 1950s, the Brisbane-based company had operations along the coastline of Queensland and South Australia.

It’s now set to axe about 200 jobs.

Australia has grappled with ongoing high insolvency rates since the pandemic.

Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the country could soon have one of the highest inflation rates among developed countries.

In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF warned that higher global prices—especially for energy and food—are pushing up costs everywhere, feeding into inflation.

It predicted that Australia’s GDP growth would remain flat this year at 2025’s level of 2.0 percent and would fall in 2027 to 1.7 percent.

Those figures are lower than previously projected, down from 2.1 percent for this year and 2.2 percent for next.