United States-Butchers having a lean time.

A lamb rack is a lamb rack is a lamb rack, unless of course you are a high-end chef looking to impress some well-heeled customers - then you want to put your own twist on the cut. That’s where Bill Kinnelly comes in.

The owner of William & Co., a wholesale meat distributor in Roxbury, caters to local chefs and hotels offering them specialized cuts to order.

It was a great business from a stability standpoint. There is little competition and Boston has built a national reputation for its fine dining options. In addition, restaurants typically have fared well even during economic downturns. But this latest one isn’t typical.

There are fewer diners with so many people losing their jobs or facing salary cuts. Not only that, there are fewer corporate functions as companies close or scale back their expenses.

Kinnelly’s business is directly tied to the fate of local restaurants, caterers and hotels. If they do poorly, so does he.

This recession could have severely wounded or even killed his company, but he has kept it going by making changes wherever possible. Those changes have not only helped him survive, they have made the company stronger.

Kinnelly started to notice the problem around this time last year. Business typically slows down after the mad rush of the holidays as diners hunker at home during the cold months of January, February and March. But last year, fewer ventured out when the weather finally grew warmer. "When the business started to kick in again, it didn’t seem to have as much of a kick," Kinnelly said. "We started watching things a lot closer then."

He saw it in the number of pounds of meat his customers were ordering and in the types of cut. They are looking for cheaper alternatives and requesting fewer specialty techniques.

Kinnelly has been in the wholesale meat business for about three decades, having started as a youngster in his family’s shop. He started William & Co. nearly 12 years ago. His favorite part is the customers.

"I get out and I sell to a lot of the places, and I love that," he said. "I love talking to the chefs and being connected to how it gets done."

He made a conscious decision when he started the business to grow it only so much. Getting too big, he felt, would mean sacrificing quality control. Size, however, can provide a cushion when hard times come. Instead, Kinnelly had to look at the very bones of his business to find ways to do things cheaper and more efficiently.

He examined every line item from health care to the boxes used for packaging. He cut salaries, including his own. He even switched his electricity provider to save $100 a month. "Sometimes you look at the balance sheets and you wonder if $100 is going to make a difference, but it can," he said.

The hardest part, perhaps, was having to let go of a few workers during the slow period. He usually tries to keep everyone on board, knowing he’ll need them soon enough. Not this year, however.

Still, Kinnelly is optimistic. He said he’s seeing signs of business picking up and he expects to have the full crew back soon.

"I’m hoping that right now it will start to turn," he said.

Plenty of restaurants, caterers, hotels and diners would agree.