WHEN Victoria Barnes put on a white coat and started packing daily orders at Mark's Meats of Cwmbran last month, she became the fourth generation of her family to enter the butchery business.

The 23-year-old's great grandfather was a Newport tripe cutter - an important job in the days when a cow's stomach lining was considered a great British delicacy.

Her grandfather was a retail butcher at Newport Market, stall number 24.

He is remembered today by a plaque in the market recording his and other market men's efforts on behalf of their country during the Second World War.

In his day, there were around 26 butchers at the market, all making a decent living. Victoria's father Mark served his apprenticeship there having left school at 15.

He is the Mark of Mark's Meats, now a ruddy-faced and fit-looking 50.

His business became a limited company in 1993 and is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

Victoria said: "I spent the last three years working for Manpower in recruitment.

"I had always wanted to work for my dad, but it takes courage to leave something you know and jump into something new.

"Eventually, I just thought "that's it, stop dithering and just do it'."

Being the boss's daughter, Victoria is already a director of the business with special responsibility for sales and marketing.

But that's as far as she wants nepotism to take her.

"I believe in leading from the front and I'm quite happy to put a white coat on and go and do whatever needs to be done.

"I start at 6am because all our orders are packed fresh on the day so we need as early a start as we can get.

"Dad gets here at between five and five-thirty but he doesn't find this hard because he just lives and breathes the business."

The family shifted to wholesaling when they saw the way supermarkets were starting to dominate the retail scene.

Mr Lewis said: "When I was working at Newport Market the number of butchers had dwindled to about 16 and Sainsbury's was just building its store on the site of the old Newport abattoir.

"We could see the way things were going so we decided to do something about it."

They began wholesaling from their Caerleon home and moved to the current site at Llantarnam Park about eight years ago.

Mr Lewis is an animated exponent of what he calls "the old-fashioned values of good service, good value and top quality" .

He buys his meat on the hoof at markets such as Ross on Wye, Worcester, Newport, Monmouth and Talgarth.

Victoria has press clippings of her father at some of these sales, where his single-minded pursuit of quality has often led to him purchasing the top-price "champion" pens.

The goal for his meat, he claims, is "eatability", in other words, meat so good you just can't resist it.

His refrigerated warehouse is one of the few in which the meat is "air matured" for up to 21 days.

He said: "Large-scale operators get their cuts vacuum-packed immediately to preserve as much of the weight in the meat as they can.

"But this doesn't do much for the fat or the flavour after cooking."

Fat is an important element in Mr Lewis' judgement of meat. "You need to see it to ensure the animal has been properly fed.

"And top chefs will tell you that the fat contributes flavour to the meat during cooking. "You don't have to eat it!"

Hygiene plays a major factor in the business.

Mr Lewis claims to be the only wholesale supplier in the area who is licensed and regularly tested to EU-approved standards.

"This attainment was not compulsory for a business like ours, we volunteered to match the EU standard because it's the most stringent appraisal and gives our customers confidence they're buying the best."

These customers include the University Hospital Wales, and top restaurants across Gwent including The Chandlery in Newport, the Cripple Creek Inn in Raglan, The Hall at Gwellog, and the White Hart at Llangybi.

The business also has a number of personal customers who've been gathered by word-of-mouth endorsements. One called as we were speaking.

He bought around £200-worth of large and very healthy-looking steaks.

Around 90 per cent of the Mark's Meats business is based on beef, with the balance coming from lamb and pork.

Mr Lewis is frustrated that Welsh beef does not carry as much prestige as the Scottish variety.

"I believe the quality of Welsh beef is at least as good at Scottish and it needs more promotion from government."

Relaxation is hard to come by when you've turned yourself into a human dynamo, but Mr Lewis is doing "a Prince Philip" and getting into competitive carriage driving.

"I've already got myself an old butcher's vehicle, I'm just looking for the right horse."

Pictured: Victoria Barnes with her father Mark