True Bites History

Dennis George Rhoades left school in 1931 at the age of 14. Trained as a cabinet maker but unable to find work in carpentry, he took a job as a butcher’s apprentice — known then as a “butcher’s boy”.

That first job set Dennis, and future generations of the family, on a long path of butchery, shop keeping and business.

Dennis later married Elsie May Box, served in the RAF during the Second World War, and returned to work in a butchers shop in The Scotlands, Wolverhampton.

Around 1947/48, D. G. Rhoades started his own delivery round, supplying meat, bacon and eggs to the Bushbury Housing Estate in Wolverhampton.

Not long after, Dennis and Elsie went into business together, running a café, snack bar and butchers in Heath Town, Wednesfield, before later moving into further butchers shops and eventually a council shop in Bushbury.

In 1956, Dennis John Rhoades — known as “Little Den” — began working weekends for his father at the Springfield butchers shop.

It was there he learned traditional butchery skills, including how to make faggots, black pudding and sausages. By 1958 he was working there full time.

Around the same period, Dennis and Elsie opened one of the original supermarkets in Ashmore Park, Wolverhampton, alongside further butchery and grocery businesses.

After leaving his father’s shop, D. J. Rhoades worked for Dewhursts the butchers in Wolverhampton before managing the butchery department at George Masons.

He later opened his own shop in Lawnswood, Wordsley, followed by a butchers in Barnet Lane, Kingswinford and a freezer centre in Wordsley.

By around 1980, D. J. Rhoades’ business had grown and developed a strong wholesale trade.

The business moved to factory premises in Dawley Brook, Kingswinford to cope with increasing demand, before moving again to Lye four years later.

As demand continued to grow, D. J. Rhoades’ business moved to larger wholesale premises in Peartree Lane, Dudley in 1999.

In 2007, Dennis’s youngest son, Matthew, started working with him, continuing the family connection to the meat trade into another generation.

In early 2013, Dennis and Matthew decided to move back towards traditional retail butchery and entered into business together to form True Bites.

Their aim was to revive the traditions of quality, friendly butchery and bring them into the 21st century — and so the online butcher was born.

With help from Matthew’s uncle Chris, they built True Bites HQ in Telford themselves, designing, building and installing everything before opening in early 2014.

As the business grew, it became clear True Bites needed a dedicated refrigerated van to keep up with demand.

Matthew collected the first True Bites refrigerated delivery van in early 2015 and began delivery rounds, much like his grandfather had done almost 60 years earlier in Wolverhampton.