Pyrenees Premium Cuts, based in Avoca and Maryborough, will be opening on Ingor Street in two weeks.

Mrs Collicoat said opening a store in Ararat had always been on their agenda.

"We are just waiting for some new display cases to come in, and once they come in we will be ready to operate," she said.

"We had always wanted to open in Ararat, probably ever since we first bought our store in Avoca.

"We noticed there was an opening in the market for a small goods and gourmet producer ... the town is big enough to support two butchers.

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"It was a little bit shocking for us that there was such a large opening in the butchering market there."

Mrs Collicoat is a member of the Victorian and Australian Retail Council and said the meat industry was "copping a beating" before COVID-19.

"It is mostly due to the supermarkets and the fact that people forget to shop local," she said.

"People are not thinking about the small growers that work day in, day out to provide customers with the best quality produce from local farmers and resources.

"That was demonstrated highly when the first round of lockdown hit - supermarkets ran out of meat and couldn't provide customers with what they needed.

"Then people started coming to the local butchers because we had the stock.

"We had to work all kinds of crazy hours - we did a 24-hour shift in one day just because we were that busy and we wanted to make sure everyone had everything they needed."

Mrs Collicoat said she hoped people would now be more inclined to shop at their local butcher rather than the supermarkets.

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"Our mission with our business is not about getting bigger and better ... our mission is purely to ensure that the butchering industry stays within central Victoria and that there are enough butchers within the regional towns," she said.

"We have bought two butchering shops that were closing down, and would have left the town without a butcher.

"It is really important to us that the people understand the difference between local homegrown, handmade products as opposed to a machine that manufactures in large quantities with no level of care.

"Those relationships I had with my local growers was what fundamentally led us to be able to fulfil all of our orders."

Mrs Collicoat said business had ramped up during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have five kids, so that's been a challenge within itself - getting the kids used to the idea of a different kind of lifestyle," she said.

"They had to go to school during lockdown because we had been really busy. The shops are operating at full capacity, to the point where I have had to put four to five new staff on.

"I am doing a traineeship to be a qualified butcher. I have put nursing on hold and will be a qualified butcher in 12 months.

"We are all about creating local employment. It is really important to us ... and we want to keep providing people with our homemade quality produce."

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