Meet Our Team

Corinne is our fabulous and resilient mainstay manager, who leads our production team.  Her cool-headedness and proficiency in production are just what is needed in such a seasonal business!  She is bright and bubbly, organised and calm, and has brought many changes to streamline our processes as well as training up the rest of her team.

Alex joined us in August 2020 to become our full-time production assistant on a youth employment scheme. He has assimilated wonderfully into the production team after Corinne took him under her wing. He’s quickly become a reliable hand and he’s possibly even the fastest salmon slicer! He’s a local boy and both of his parents worked in the company next door to us. It feels great to be so close-knit!

Ben is a great full-time addition to our production staff and has just celebrated his one year anniversary at the Smokery. He is particularly handy with fast packing and has become skilled in the art of salmon slicing. He hails from just down the road in Abergavenny and enjoys supporting Chelsea Football Club, and playing a few games of pool in the pub with his mates!

Having balanced his time between two seasonal businesses, marquees in the summer & the smokery in the autumn, Hugh, our son, moved on to pastures green in January 2024.  He is sorely missed! For many years he has been an integral part of BMS; he was a machine when it came to slicing salmon, and an all-important Mr. Fix-It whenever we needed him. We hope he may not be able to resist getting out and about to one or two fairs and events with us in the future!

Our daughter Hetta has graduated from her time at BMS and has retrained as an investment manager in the city. However, she often takes the time to help out from afar with recipes and photography, social media suggestions, and generally poke her parents in the right direction!

Millie is our full-time Office Assistant. A Crickhowell girl, she has recently returned from a year of travelling around Australia. She likes reading and having time to walk in The Black Mountains with her family and friends. She is the face behind our social media and is learning lots of tricks of the trade of web development too, as well as being a friendly voice on the end of the phone.

Tamara had recently joined our office team and gearing up in full force ready for Christmas. With a strong history of customer’s service Tamara is a wonderful helper on the end of the phone and is able to answer any queries you may have!

Tamara has been a friend of Jo and Jonathan’s for years and once lived next door on the beautiful hill that drew the Carthew family back to Wales all those years ago!

Emma has recently joined us from Harper Adams University for her year in placement. She is hoping to learn more about the intricacies running a food business. Emma will be heading our Warehouse Team this Christmas, as well as being a friendly face in the shop! Make sure to call in and say hello.

Zsazsi is the first of our full-time seasonal temps and is joining our Warehouse Team! She will help to pack orders and organise the warehouse as we come into our busy season. You can also expect to see Zsazsi behind the counter of our Smokery Shop and at some of the fairs this year.
Zsazsi is joining us on her gap year and is saving up to travel South America, where she will be teaching English and hopefully picking up the Spanish language!

Tabby is one of our full-time seasonal temps who is joining our Warehouse Team. She will be a calm, organised helper amoung the Christmas chaos and will be yet another smiling face in our Smokery Shop.
Tabby is currently on her gap year and will travel South Africa next year doing volunteering and conservation work before studying medicine at university.

Marcus is our dream neighbour, but he also is much more than that! He is a fellow Welsh country enthusiast, found always either cooking up a storm, up a hill enjoying the outdoors or going above and beyond to help us rural folk with our tech problems. He gives us his genius IT support and is always on call as our office superhero whenever any tech goes squiffy. He’s also a qualified chef and private caterer so he gladly acts as quality control when any food needs testing! Here’s a picture of his dog Fizzy as, despite his many talents and sparkling reputation, Marcus is a bit camera shy!

Emma is our digital marketing go-to. If ever there is a job too complicated or too onerous for us in the office, we ping an email over to Emma and she sorts it in seconds! She works for InSynch, who have been assisting our business and website for years and we cannot thank her enough for keeping our marketing modern and a true reflection of our ethos! We’re eager to have her down to the Smokery when we can, to give her a proper tour and tasting.

Kate has been our trusty bookkeeper for a few years now. She started working for us in between gardening jobs. Her numbers now keep her so busy we fear she has little time for green fingers! She is also a whizz with financial presentations.  She’s a local gal and a key part of the extended BMS family.

Jo & Jonathan started Black Mountains Smokery in 1996. The smokery has grown a lot since then but remains a family-run local business with the same principles it started with.