New hands are at the wheel of a cherished area business, and one of the owners said he’s hopeful that the business will continue to serve all of the district’s meat-eating needs.
Tim Petermann and his business partner Rys Norman are the new owners of Rainy River Meats, an Emo establishment that has been helping district residents purchase high-quality local meat, and support local farmers, for years. The pair took over operating the business after it went up for sale in late 2024, with plans to provide the same quality service that residents of the district have come to expect of it.
Petermann shared that his background in the agriculture industry put him in a good position to step into Rainy River Meats as an owner, particularly because it includes some time already spent in the business itself.
“I grew up on a farm in Renfrew County,” he explained.
“My dad has a smaller beef farm compared to some, but it’s bigger than a lot. We finish about 500 head a year. In 2014 we expanded operations and bought a cow/calf farm in this area, we moved up seven years ago, so I’ve been working for dad up here. A couple years ago I started working at the abattoir once a week, and that turned into working at Rainy River Meats.”
For about a year, Petermann said, he worked both locations, before enrolling in Olds College of Agriculture and Technology’s Meat Processing certification program. After completing the program, Petermann took a very roundabout path to returning to the region.
“From there, I went to Switzerland and worked there for six months in a butcher shop,” he said.
“It was quite different, the rules are fairly different there. Believe it or not, the rules are a little bit more relaxed as far as food safety goes. But it’s really interesting to see how they made traditional salami and dried and fermented sausages there. They had big smokehouses, almost the size of a barn, three storeys, and they’d cold smoke things year-round.”
Petermann said he’d been eyeing an entry into the business side of things, but the start-up costs associated with a new business were more than he felt he could afford. When Rainy River Meats came up for sale, a pre-established business with all the necessary equipment and built-in clientele at a fair price, he said it was an opportunity he and Norman couldn’t walk away from.
Now co-owners, Petermann said he tends to look after the day-to-day business in the meat shop, while Norman and his wife handle marketing, finances and travelling to other markets in the area like Kenora, once the season begins.
Not looking to upset the apple cart, Petermann said the partners plan to take the business one day at a time, working to update the shops recipes, try new items for consumers, and take on more meat from area farmers.
“We’re working quite a bit on getting the recipes updated, trying to get a better product out there, and we’re hoping eventually to get into a bit more merchandising products like stuffed pork chops and sausage croissants and stuff like that as well,” he said.
“But for the time being, we’re continuing fairly similar, as far as the business goes, to how it was run before. For now, the biggest thing is just trying to keep the doors open. We’re hoping to get more wholesale clients, get a farther reach with our products and, potentially, looking into moving into a bigger building, down the road. I’m not entirely sure how far we’ll get, but right now, we’re kind of taking it day by day.”
Petermann also noted that once their new recipes start hitting the shelves, he’s also hoping to hear back from the people who shop at Rainy River Meats. Feedback the shop receives from customers will help them refine their recipes and potentially introduce new products that shoppers might be looking for, which will benefit everyone over the long run. There’s also still plenty of room for those agricultural producers who have animals that they are looking to have processed, he said.
For more information about the new Rainy River Meats, including having meat processed there, give the business a call at 807-482-2303 or check out their Facebook page.
