Every successful butcher shop, smallgoods operation and chef-driven food business in Australia eventually hits the same crossroads.
You've outgrown the compact gear. Your daily volume has crept up. Your mince program has gone from "side feature" to "core product." Your sausage runs are getting longer. And the mincer that got you here honestly is starting to feel small.
But you're not ready for a 1.5hp commercial behemoth. You don't have abattoir-scale volume. You don't need 200kg an hour.
You need the Trespade No.22 (0.8hp).
After more than a decade supplying butcher equipment across Australia from the laneway smallgoods makers of Melbourne's inner north to the artisan butcher shops of Sydney's eastern suburbs, Brisbane's gourmet food districts, Perth's Fremantle scene and Adelaide's central markets the No.22 is the mincer we recommend more often than any other to operators in growth mode.
Here's why it earns that recommendation, and exactly when it's the right call.
What the Trespade No.22 Actually Is (And Who It's Built For)
The Trespade No.22 is an 0.8hp Italian-made meat mincer built as the mid-range workhorse of Trespade's bench-mount lineup. Trespade has been manufacturing meat processing equipment in Italy since 1956, and the No.22 represents the size most operators land on once they've worked out exactly what their daily volume looks like not the spec they hoped for, but the spec they actually need.
Cast components throughout. Hardened, precision-machined plates. A motor sized for genuine sustained operation across a real working shift. Italian build tolerances that hold up to the kind of use that destroys cheaper mincers in their first year.
This is the mincer for you if:
- You're an established small-to-mid butcher shop with daily mince and sausage volume that's outgrown smaller equipment.
- You're a smallgoods producer scaling from farmers' market and local wholesale into restaurant supply and online retail.
- You run a chef-owned restaurant or restaurant group with a meaningful in-house mince, burger or charcuterie program.
- You're a mid-volume game processor handling regular venison, kangaroo or wild boar work for a steady client base.
- You're a serious home processor whose hobby has become semi-commercial multiple cattle a year, regular sausage production, side hustle starting to gain traction.
If you're under 30kg a day, the No.12 is your tool. If you're consistently above 200kg a day, you need the No.32. The No.22 sits squarely in the productive middle and that middle covers the vast majority of growing Australian operations.
Why Australian Operators in Growth Mode Choose the Trespade No.22
1. The Right Power for the Real Work
The No.22's 0.8hp motor isn't headline-grabbing on a spec sheet but it's perfectly matched to the work pattern of a growing operation. Sustained grinding through tough cuts, mixed material and decent batch sizes without bogging down, overheating, or feeling like it's working too hard.
The honest truth: most operators think they need more horsepower than they actually do. We see it every month. Buyers stepping up from a home-grade mincer often assume they need the No.32 then their accountant looks at the volume math and the No.22 turns out to be the right call by a comfortable margin.
2. Built to Outlast Your Next Two Growth Phases
Tinned cast iron body, auger and retaining ring. Stainless steel hopper, motor cover and base. Hardened steel #22 cutting knife paired with a properly-machined stainless plate.
A well-maintained Trespade No.22 will run reliably through 5–10 years of growing-business use meaning it's still earning its keep when your operation is twice the size it is today. That's the math that makes the difference between a tool and an asset.
3. Italian Heritage, Australian Backing
We import Trespade direct and stock units at our Capel Sound facility in Victoria. For growing operations, the local support equation matters more than the brand badge:
- Replacement plates and knives held in Australian stock, fast-dispatched nationwide.
- Service guidance from a team that's seen these machines in field conditions.
- Direct relationships with operators across the country who run identical units.
When you're growing, downtime is the most expensive thing on your books. Local parts and local support is what stops a single broken plate from becoming a week-long crisis.
4. Compact Enough to Actually Live in Your Space
The No.22 sits in a footprint that fits real commercial kitchens. Tight Sydney CBD prep spaces, narrow Melbourne laneway shops, shared production kitchens in Brisbane and Perth, multi-purpose benches in Adelaide central market operations it works in the spaces that an oversized commercial mincer simply doesn't.
5. Genuine Hygiene-First Design
Tool-light disassembly, stainless contact surfaces, geometry designed to clean cleanly. Australian food safety standards aren't getting more lenient having gear that supports your HACCP routine instead of fighting it is a quiet productivity multiplier across the year.
6. Trespade Is the Name That Quietly Means Something
In European butcher and smallgoods circles, Trespade is the workshop name that carries weight. Among Australian operators with European training, family heritage, or international experience the brand recognition is immediate. Increasingly, it's spreading through the broader trade. The No.22 is often where that brand loyalty starts.
Real Use Cases We've Seen Across Australia
In Sydney, an inner-west boutique butcher runs the No.22 as their primary mincer sausage production, premium mince blends, daily retail grind six days a week without complaint.
In Melbourne, a smallgoods micro-producer in the north scaled from farmers' market trading to supplying eight restaurants on the back of consistent throughput from a single No.22. They're now considering a No.32 but the No.22 will stay as a dedicated secondary unit.
In Brisbane, a chef-owned restaurant in the inner city runs theirs for an entire in-house charcuterie and sausage program house chorizo, breakfast sausage, burger blend across a 200-cover venue.
In Perth, an established Fremantle butcher uses the No.22 as their dedicated grinder for specialty work premium mince, dry-aged blends, wagyu trim keeping their larger commercial unit free for bulk daily work.
In Adelaide, a regional smallgoods maker supplying farmers' markets and direct-to-consumer customers across South Australia runs the No.22 as the entire production engine of their growing business.
How the Trespade No.22 Compares to the No.12 and No.32
The decision matrix we walk operators through on the phone:
- No.12 (0.65hp) — Compact, high-performance. Best for boutique shops with light daily volume, restaurants with small in-house programs, smallgoods start-ups, serious home charcutiers, and hunters processing personal-use quantities.
- No.22 (0.8hp) — Mid-range workhorse. Best for established small-to-mid butcher shops, smallgoods producers in scaling phase, restaurant groups with meaningful mince programs, mid-volume game processors, and serious home processors moving into semi-commercial.
- No.32 (1.5hp) — Heavy-duty commercial. Best for high-volume butcher shops, abattoirs, wholesale smallgoods producers, game processing operations at scale, and central commissaries.
The honest test we give callers: if you're consistently grinding between 30kg and 200kg per day, or you're in active growth phase and your current mincer is starting to feel limiting the No.22 is the right answer.
Most operators get this decision wrong in one of two directions: they buy down to save money on capital cost (and outgrow the mincer in 18 months), or they over-buy to feel professional (and pay for capacity they never use). The No.22 is the model that fits the most operators most cleanly.
The Growth-Stage Buying Mistake We Watch People Make
Every month, we have a version of the same conversation with someone scaling up their operation. It usually goes like this:
"I'm growing fast, so I'll just go straight to the No.32 future-proof, right?"
Sometimes that's the right call. Often, it's not. Here's why:
- Capital tied up in over-capacity is capital you can't deploy elsewhere inventory, marketing, hiring, equipment that actually unlocks revenue.
- The No.32 is a different physical footprint 25kg, larger bench space. If you don't need its volume yet, you're paying space rent for it.
- A No.22 that's well-used and well-maintained holds resale value when you eventually outgrow it. That second-hand recovery offsets the cost of the eventual No.32 upgrade.
- The right-sized tool is faster than the over-sized tool for the volume you're actually doing. Bigger isn't faster it's just bigger.
The strategic move for most growing operations is: buy the No.22 now, run it hard for 3–5 years, and graduate to the No.32 when your volume genuinely demands it. That sequence costs less, performs better, and gives you cleaner cash flow during your highest-growth years.
What Smart Buyers Look For in a Mid-Range Mincer
The strategist-honest checklist:
- Real, sustained throughput not zero-load horsepower claims.
- Cast iron, not pressed steel. Pressed steel mincers warp under regular commercial use.
- Available parts in Australia. Replacement plates and knives held in domestic stock.
- Hygiene-friendly disassembly. Five extra minutes per clean compounds fast across a year.
- Resale value. Well-kept Trespade mincers hold their value on the secondary market.
- Local service ecosystem. When something needs attention, who can help and how fast.
Ready to Add a Trespade No.22 to Your Operation?
We stock Trespade mincers at our Capel Sound, Victoria facility and ship Australia-wide Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and every regional pocket in between. The No.22 is consistently our most-asked-about size in the range, so units move steadily.
The fastest way to lock yours in:
📞 Call us: +61 409 909 551
✉️ Email: info@psctrading.com.au
🛒 Shop the Trespade No.22: psctrading.com.au
Not sure whether the No.12, No.22 or No.32 is the right size for where your operation is right now? Send us a DM on Instagram or Facebook @psctrading tell us your weekly volume, material, and growth trajectory, and we'll give you a real recommendation, not a sales pitch.
Italian engineering. Australian-supplied. Built for the operators who are scaling up and want a mincer that grows with them.
About PSC Trading
PSC Trading is an Australian-owned manufacturer and distributor of butcher supplies, food processing equipment, industrial aprons, safety PPE and sustainable packaging. Based in Capel Sound, Victoria, we've supported the Australian butcher, hospitality, abattoir and smallgoods industries since 2013.
