Cody Burbery found more than a job at PAK’nSAVE Te Awamutu. With an apprenticeship and a team backing him, the former chef has built an award-winning career.
Former chef Cody Burbery says he copped a bit of flak when he first took his supermarket job. Four years later, he is a qualified butcher and the 2026 ANZCO Foods Butcher Apprentice of the Year.
“I felt like I was going backwards, but now I’m only going forward, which is great.”
At locally owned PAK’nSAVE Te Awamutu – a member of the Foodstuffs North Island co-op, one of two Foodstuffs co-ops behind our PAK’nSAVE, New World and Four Square supermarkets – Burbery found butchers willing to share their knowledge and an owner-operator, Jeremy Bennett, who has enthusiastically backed his ambition.
“He’s very, very competitive, and he’s been pretty passionate about taking that to the next level,” Bennett says.
He calls the team’s willingness to put each other first “servant leadership” and sees it as an example for the rest of the store.
Bennett knows first-hand the difference encouragement makes. He started in supermarkets at about 16, working through school and university.
After graduating, his boss suggested he could one day own a store. 13 years ago he bought his first New World store, and has been at PAK’nSAVE Te Awamutu for three years.
“There’s a hugely rewarding part of seeing people grow and seeing people realise their potential,” he says.
For Burbery, an apprenticeship offered a way back to food. Allergies had forced the Army-trained chef out of hospitality, into a job changing tyres that hadn’t given him the same satisfaction.
Learning butchery from his father-in-law sparked his interest. He applied for an apprenticeship advertised by PAK’nSAVE Te Awamutu and was signed up as soon as he started.
Across the Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island co-ops, apprentices earn while working towards recognised trade qualifications, supported by their stores, Foodstuffs training teams and Skills4Work.
Everyone in the PAK’nSAVE Te Awamutu team pitches in. Cleaning isn’t left to apprentices, and experienced butchers make time to explain unfamiliar tasks.
“It’s all about raising the level of the team, which is really good.”
For Bennett, training apprentices is about keeping skilled butchers in local stores and passing the craft on to the next generation. He believes there’s real value in having skilled people in-store who know the product and can share that knowledge with customers.
Across Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island, 449 butchery and bakery apprentices are currently in training, earning while they learn and building skills for careers in traditional food trades.
For Bennett, competitions are another way to develop and celebrate those skills, giving butchers the chance to sharpen their craft and showcase what great butchery looks like. He credits store butchery manager Brendon Alexander, who has spent six years building the team, and fellow butcher Brad Gillespie with the day-to-day teaching.
Gillespie encouraged Burbery to compete and helped refine his work. Even when Burbery thought he was finished, Gillespie could find another detail to improve.
Burbery’s first competition was humbling: “I thought I did great. I did not.”
The butchers practise together, Bennett says, competing to make the best display and learning from each other.
Burbery won his regional competition and finished national runner-up last year. This year, he won both titles.
The national final allowed two hours to turn beef, pork, lamb and chicken into a retail-ready display, including a mystery cut. Competitors also faced a theory exam and interview. Many Foodstuffs apprentices and qualified butchers were among the finalists, including from New World.
The store’s team won the teams event last year and finished second this year.
Bennett says their teamwork challenges him to improve pay and invest in competitions. He also gives them room to use their skills.
“I kind of try and give them the freedom and the independence to be able to get on and do it.”
Burbery says Bennett sets clear expectations, trusts the team and listens when there’s a problem: “He’s always got five minutes for you.”
Apprentices have stayed after qualifying, Bennett says, and packers have been inspired to become butchers. The department now has eight butchers and two apprentices.
Burbery is teaching others, although he admits that finding the patience took practice.
“If you can teach somebody, then that’s showing growth for you, as well.”
Bennett wants to build similar depth elsewhere in the store, including the bakery, which has an experienced team and one apprentice.
He has seen fellow owner-operators progress from butchery through department and store management to buying supermarkets. He is exploring on-the-job training for future department managers.
“I’m willing to train anyone that wants to learn,” Bennett says.
And development doesn’t stop once someone qualifies.
“We’ll just keep training people to a higher level.”
Burbery has no intention of stopping either. His Apprentice of the Year win comes with an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2028 World Butchers’ Challenge, and he already has his sights set on where his skills might take him next.
“My ambition is to compete there as a member of New Zealand’s Sharp Blacks,” he says.