Breaded fish product sales continue to sell well in the United Kingdom, and Grimbsy-based JCS Fish hopes to take advantage with its new BigFish Brand breaded salmon products.
The new BigFish Brand Salmon Bites retail for a suggested GBP 3.99 (USD 5.26, EUR 4.47) per 225-gram bag, and come in three flavors: Natural, Lemon & Pepper and Chilli and Lime. The BigFish Brand Salmon Goujons also retail for a suggested GBP 3.99 for a dozen goujons, and are available in Natural, Lemon and Pepper, and Chilli and Lime flavors.
“Seafood remains a popular option due to its speed of preparation and the perceived ‘healthiness’ of fish. Frozen fish in particular has seen growth in 2017, buoyed partly by household financial pressures (economic uncertainty around Brexit plus rising inflation in the U.K. economy),” Louise Coulbeck, joint founder and director of JCS Fish, told SeafoodSource.
BigFish also produces a range of prepared frozen salmon fillets (which include seven marinade flavors plus plain and organic), along with a frozen Sea Trout fillet and chilled Traditionally Oak Smoked Sea Trout and Traditionally Oak Smoked Salmon.
Coulbeck is optimistic that the new line will perform particularly well.
“Frozen natural fish and coated fish products are doing particularly well at the moment, which is good news for the new BigFish Brand breaded range,” Coulbeck said. “Plus, more adults are eating fish fingers than ever before – the value is up 6.4 percent and volume is up four percent – because seafood offers so few alternatives in this area. This suggests a major opportunity for this new range. We firmly believe that more people will eat more salmon each week if they are offered tasty and accessible products like these which capitalize on salmon's naturally convenient and healthy, Omega 3-rich properties."
BigFish Brand has more than doubled its retail sales from 1 September, 2016, through 31 August, 2017, growing 117 percent in volume. JCS Fish has a turnover of around GBP 7 million (USD 9.2 million, EUR 7.8 million) a year and employs 40 people.
BigFish Brand is sold nationally by Ocado and Costco as well as by a broad cross section of small to medium-sized independent retailers.
“As the brand develops, JCS Fish also hopes to achieve listings with the major U.K. multiples,” Coulbeck said.