Newly in love, Charlotte Dawe and Angus Cowen decided to take a sabbatical from work and go travelling around Europe in a camper van.
During their trip they developed a slightly unlikely fascination for the wide range of canned fish readily available in local bodegas and supermarkets.
“We loved the culture and the convenience of high quality fish in a tin,” says Dawe.
The couple agreed that one day they would love to open their own company canning and selling fish – and then they returned to real life in London and the idea was parked.
By the start of the pandemic Dawe, 44, and Cowen, 36, were living in a Victorian house in Hackney.
The run down three-bedroom property belonged to a friend who offered them a reduced rent in return for some DIY – although it still cost £1,500pcm.
The couple have two daughters, now aged five and six, and Cowen, a chef, was not able to work thanks to lockdown.
Dawe, who had previously worked for Soho House, was working for an Indian block print fashion company.
In between WFH and childcare the couple started to revisit their canned fish concept, and at the end of 2021 they rented a micro cannery in Hackney Wick and Sea Sisters was born (seasisters.co.uk).
Founding a new business is tough. "The main issue was our rent on the cannery, which was nearly £4,000 per month," says Dawe.
A little research revealed that they would be much better off moving south towards the coast. Rent would be lower and their delivery costs would also be slashed.
In 2022 the family made the move to Bridport, Dorset, a couple of miles inland of the fabulous Jurassic Coast.
They paid £220,000 for a two-bedroom ex council house, and have plans to add a third bedroom in the loft and extend its kitchen.
Home improvements are on hold, however, while they focus on Sea Sisters.
Their new cannery is twice the size of their London facility, and its rent is around £1,000pcm.
Business finances aside, the move has had huge benefits for family life.
“It is absolutely incredible,” says Dawe. “We are trying to give our children the sort of childhoods we had in the eighties and nineties. We are trying to be screen free and really concentrate on play and nature.”
Bridport, with its independent shops and street markets, is a great place to live, says Dawe, and having some of Britain’s most beautiful beaches on the doorstep is a huge bonus.
“We spend weekends at the beach, and we swim year round. It is wonderful.”
