Paul Lavelle and his wife Vanessa moved to Roma in 2001 when the butcher business was originally owned by a company from Toowoomba. In 2006, they decided to purchase the business and so the top-quality store of Queensland Country Meats was born.

QCM started out with two and a half employees – a casual, a butcher and Paul. They have now grown to 22 employees, 17 of whom are permanent.

The key to QCM’s success is systemizing the business to ensure consistency and customer satisfaction; employing the right staff and making sure they are being looked after to ensure they have a solid foundation to work off. The management team accumulatively have over 100 years of experience in the meat industry.

QCM’s retail sector commands the absolute premium in customer service only hiring staff members equal to the best on offer. This allows QCM to be competitive with our multinational competitors at any level. Staff are rewarded for innovative ideas at each level. The business has never taken a backward step in relation to improvement whether it be small or large steps.

We network within our industry regularly and enter competitions in order to keep staff interested and also improve our products on a yearly basis. Our recent involvement in various competitions includes

• AMIC Outback Sausage King Comp 2022. Five First and 10 placings
• Butchers Wars at Meatstock Toowoomba Winner 2022 and mentoring several apprentices and young butchers from other shops before and after the event
• Placing four apprentices in the 2022 Apprentice of the Year competition. With one receiving the young emerging apprentice of the year.
• Our business held and created the first-ever mini apprentice competition at the 2021 Outback Sausage King Competition with what was quoted as an “outstanding success”.
• Queensland Training Awards 2019. Winner South West Queensland area.
• Winner 2017. Australian Meat Industry, Best Retail Butchery Queensland.
• 2019 Maranoa Regional Business Awards. Winner Large Business. Winner overall best business.

Queensland Country Meats prides itself on giving back to the community and sourcing locally.  All of their lambs and body beef are bought locally. They also look after the community sponsoring many events, which is a big thing in a small rural area.