SIMON Howie has outlined plans to double the turnover of his eponymous butchery business by focusing on growth south of the Border.

Speaking to The Herald’s Business HQ magazine, the multi-industry entrepreneur said: “England is our biggest and best export opportunity.

“We’ve got a business doing 30 per cent in the rest of the UK and 70 per cent in Scotland. We want to turn that around, 30 per cent in Scotland and 70 per cent in the rest of the UK. Scotland would be broadly the same, but we’d be bigger everywhere else.”

Last year, the business – which supplies supermarkets, and high-end restaurants and hotels – made a pre-tax profit of £2.6m on sales of £14.7m.

And Mr Howie said his plan would see sales grow to £30m.

Mr Howie was heavily critical of the business rates revaluation, which he said had paused plans to expand his industrial property holdings. He also accused the governments of Westminster and Holyrood of adopting a “freebie and giveaway” culture that did not have long-term sustainability.

“The thing we’re anxious about is big government, moving the chess pieces around the board to suit their own agenda. The hike in non-domestic rates is absolutely crippling.

“It’s a quasi-redistribution of wealth. The working man and woman need to realise that this isn’t all about businesses getting penalties and them thinking ‘it’s not my problem’. It actually is,” he said.