A £200,000 investment by a Grimsby family seafood business has helped spawn a new range, described as the best ever by the proud owner.
JCS Fish has introduced a new smokehouse at the docks base, and now a ‘Signature Smoked’ range has been created under the BigFish brand, featuring three products that build on more than 100 years of expertise.
Co-founder and managing director of the £7 million business, Andrew Coulbeck, said: “Smoked fish has long been part of our family heritage, but we only recently decided to bring it in-house again to give us the control and flexibility we were looking for.
“Signature is the result of our desire to create the most perfectly smoked products we could in our own Grimsby smokehouse.”
The new smokehouse is part of a wider programme of investment at the Murray Street business. It has been built and certified to modern high-care production and hygiene standards but with traditional style kilns. It also allows the company to ensure certified organic status for products made with organic fish.
“My entire working life has been in salmon and I am so proud of these Signature products,” Mr Coulbeck said. “I think they are really something special.”
He is not alone in his thinking either, it has already been shortlisted for a Quality Food Award alongside smoked haddock from Grimsby's renowned Alfred Enderby.
Described as a premium listing and available through selected independent retailers in the UK and direct, the range features Oak Smoked Salmon, Oak Smoked Organic Salmon, and Oak Smoked Sea Trout, prepared using whole sides of fish which are cured by hand with natural salt.
They are slowly smoked in the kilns for an extended time with oak and other natural flavourings, creating smoked fish with unique character and a particularly full, rich taste, according to the 40-strong team.
Mr Coulbeck prides himself on using “superior fish”, including certified organic salmon and a standard salmon with protected geographic indication designated origin status from Scotland that is certified to the Global GAP (GGN) aquaculture standard, meeting strict criteria on environmental integrity, animal welfare, food safety and social responsibility.
BigFish is the only brand in the UK to currently apply this standard.
Branded products will now carry a label allowing consumers to verify the certified source.
Jack Coulbeck, commercial manager at JCS Fish and a second generation within the 19-year-old firm, said: “Whilst consumers are increasingly interested in the provenance of their food, there is much confusion about what constitutes a responsible choice, particularly when it comes to farmed fish.
"We want to make it simple by ensuring BigFish products have a third-party certification which guarantees they’ve been farmed responsibly. The GGN label is an important tool for us to deliver on this objective for our salmon.”
GGN labelling will be rolled out on further BigFish brand salmon products over the next 12 months.
