Grimsby, United Kingdom-based JCS Fish has expanded its range of BigFish smoked fish products, a year after opening a new smokehouse.
The company’s new products are Hot Smoked Salmon and Hot Smoked Trout, fresh fillets naturally brined and made without sugar and lightly hot-smoked with oak, and sold in 130-gram packs of two.
Initially, the new products be available exclusively via meal-kit provider Mindful Chef, which place an emphasis on offering ethically-sourced fresh ingredients to create a healthy meal for two at home.
“We are delighted with these products, which have already received some excellent feedback from Mindful Chef consumers,” JCS Fish Commercial Manager Coulbeck said. “The COVID-19 lockdown has generated a massive expansion in the home meal market, and all the Mindful Chef healthy recipes that feature our products have proved extremely popular so far. We expect considerable interest in these Hot Smoked fillets from our wider customer base and will also make them available in the next few weeks through our own online channel.”
The BigFish brand has won 25 individual product awards to date, including six Great Taste stars across its smoked fish products and a Silver Monde Selection award for its Signature Smoked Salmon.
“It was a big decision for us to go back into salmon smoking a couple of years ago but the investment in our Grimsby smokehouse has really paid off,” JCS Fish Founder and Director Andrew Coulbeck said in a press release. “This is the third time in 12 months that we have been recognized for the quality of our smoked products, a tribute to the care and attention to detail which our smokehouse team puts in every day.”
JCS Fish was founded in 2000 by the Coulbeck family and around 50 employees and annual sales around GBP 8.5 million (USD 10.8 million, EUR 9.3 million). It launched its BigFish retail brand in 2009, and the range now includes were plain and flavored salmon fillets, breaded salmon bites, fish cakes and smoked products. It supplies independent retailers and farm shops across the U.K., also sells products online via its own website and Ocado. JCS Fish holds BRC AA grade accreditation for its factory and GlobalG.A.P. certification for all its products.
The company “has always had a strong emphasis on frozen, a strategy which has proven particularly effective through the [COVID-19 crisis],” according to the company.
“Whilst we have grown fairly consistently over the past 20 years, we have had to deal with a lot of challenges too, including massive market fluctuations and of course this year’s pandemic. However, our faith in frozen has been repaid this year as people rediscover the value and reliability of their freezers during the COVID-19 crisis,” Founder and Director Louise Coulbeck said.
Photo courtesy of JCS Fish
