AIMS (the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers) is a new association created for the benefit of the small and medium sized abattoirs. Members of AIMS make up the major proportion of the small and medium sized abattoir sector in England & Wales.

Our members serve livestock farmers' whole range of needs and satisfy consumer requirements through butchers and companies distributing meat and meat products and those supplying much larger geographic areas.

Small and medium sized abattoirs deal with over 50% of the nation's animals including traditional, ethnic and other specialist market requirements.

The businesses represented by AIMS have had a very tough time of late from meeting the new legislative requirements as a result of:

• BSE
• Over Thirty Month Scheme
• Meat Hygiene Service
• the new Food Standards Agency and
• Foot & Mouth disease

It is unusual for new associations to be needed. But the small and medium abattoirs felt that the representation by other organisations appeared to offer more advantages for large processing abattoirs and they were concerned that the issues affecting their smaller businesses were not being addressed satisfactorily.

AIMS was set-up to give small and medium sized abattoirs the voice they need to be properly and effectively represented to the UK Government and others so the businesses may thrive in the 21^st century,

AIMS is run by Norman Bagley. Norman has long recognised the importance of this sector within the food industry. An auctioneer by profession and due to his interest and involvement with the small and medium abattoir sector, Norman was invited to be a member of the 'Maclean Group' which looked at the impact of the recent EU legislation on abattoir businesses. Norman pursuaded the Maclean Group an acute consciousness of the importance of the small and medium sized abattoir and the role that this sector has in meeting the needs of consumers for high quality, locally produced meat.

Janet runs the operation of AIMS on a day to day basis and is the ‘webmaster’ for this site and the on-line service for the members of AIMS

This site is in two parts:

The public site sets out to explain the role of the small and medium sized abattoir sector in the food industry and the importance of this role to the consumer.

The members site, which is available only to the members of AIMS, is accessed by a username and password. At present, this private area provides:

• information about the work being undertaken by AIMS
• on-line forums for members to exchange views on policy issues and ideas for new work.

In the future the site will provide a electronic platform for the member companies of AIMS to do business, with each other, with third parties and to collaborate to do business together to meet larger scale requirements.