Perth sausage king buys WA's biggest deer farm
Perth’s sausage king, Mick Ferrero, looks set to add venison to the menu of his British Sausage Company after buying WA’s oldest and biggest commercial deer farm and its operating business.
The company paid $5.75 million for Margaret River Venison, a 120-hectare farm and tourist attraction at Cowaramup, a pretty agricultural town about three hours’ drive from Perth.
The business was established in the late 1970s by Graham and Cynthia Morrison as WA’s first commercial venison farm near Donnybrook, the hub of Western Australia’s apple-growing district.
Mr Morrison, originally a sheep and grain farmer from Beverley in the wheat belt region south-east of Perth, made the move into deer farming after reading a book about it and undertaking a study tour of deer farms on the east coast.
The Morrisons bought their first deer – fallow deer – from wildlife parks in 1979, and two years later established Glen Karaleea Deer Park alongside their commercial deer-farming business.
In 1990, after greatly expanding their herd and partnering with investors, the Morrisons sold their Donnybrook property and the wildlife farm and bought what became Margaret River Venison on Caves Road in Cowaramup.
It included a farm shop selling venison products, and a vertically integrated business that involved their children and grandchildren.
The deer farm was first listed for sale in 2018, and went through the hands of a number of estate agents before Daniel Lloyd-Smith and Ben Lloyd-Smith from Nutrien Harcourts took charge and secured new owners.
Meeting expat demand
In a statement posted on the farm’s Facebook page, the Morrison family said that after 42 years of farming deer, they had passed the baton to The British Sausage Company. The farm is now being managed by Chad and Carla Mitchelmore.
The British Sausage Company is part of Australian British Food Holdings, which also owns Peppercorn Food Co and British Ham & Bacon Co.
Mr Ferrero, a British migrant and third-generation butcher, began making authentic English sausages after hearing fellow expats reminisce about the pork sausages they ate back home but could not find in Perth.
The company started off supplying sausages to local butchers and IGA supermarkets, then opened its own factory after striking deals to provide products to Woolworths and Coles.
It now makes 30 varieties of sausage, ham and bacon products from factories in Western Australia and NSW.
The company was contacted for comment, but did not respond.
Mr Lloyd-Smith said there had been a lot of inquiries from corporate and finance types for what was a unique property.
“Pre-COVID, there was a big market for venison from Asian tourists, who often stopped at the farm on their large bus tours,” he said.
It’s busy again, business numbers are increasing. People are still fascinated by it.”
