Showcases / Island Fish opens shop and celebrates a year of business at Gremista
LERWICK based Island Fish Shetland Ltd has now opened a shop stocking a range of groceries as well as the fish counter which sells as much locally sourced fish as possible and has also introduced a loyalty scheme.
The business started processing fish just over a year ago at the Marina Business Park in Lerwick. It is run by John Martin Tulloch with assistance from his sons Willum and Maikum and is currently looking for a part-time filleter and a shop assistant to help out.
Island Fish is located in the site once occupied by the old McNab’s fish factory and shop and has the same layout with retail and processing occupying separate parts of the same building.
John Martin said the aim is to supply people with many of their daily groceries such as milk, buns and biscuits as well as fresh fish.
Customers can benefit from loyalty cards which offer a stamp for every £10 spent on fish. Once 10 stamps are collected the customer is due £5 off.
The Island Fish Facebook page says: “Our little shop is packed with stock for your convenience. Not only do we sell fresh and affordable fish we also have a large selection of frozen and chilled foods, shelf items, sauces to go with your fresh fish, juice, sweets and filled rolls for your morning break.
“We even stock greetings cards! We really can be that one and only stop on the way home. Please follow our page for our latest offers, specials on fish and to see others recipe ideas.”
John Martin added: “We have shelf space if anyone is wanting to come with ideas of what they would like to see on the shelves, so they can come here and get their helly errands and get all their shopping done here at affordable prices.
“We are stocking Sandwick Bakery stuff but if more people want to see stuff from Voe or Walls, we can take in anything that is going to sell.
“We are stocking common and not so common types of fish and shellfish and are just trying to make things a bit more affordable for the retail and wholesale as well, and really try to promote local seafood.”
To that end Island Fish purchases from Shetland Seafood Auctions’ electronic market and has several fishing boats landing direct to the company.
With the end of the tourist season much of the wholesale restaurant and hotel trade has tapered off and most of what Island Fish processes now goes to mainland buyers.
A joiner to trade, John Martin was fishing part-time before setting up Island Fish which is one of the last white fish processors in Shetland.
“We were landing part-boxes and getting very little for it on the market and thought it might have been an idea to process our own catch just to try and increase the value of it.”
The company will be at the Taste of Shetland Food and Drink festival on 23 and 24 November where Willum will be demonstrating cutting cod tongues and monk cheeks, which are a “bit of a delicacy” in Norway and Iceland.
“It’s really a bit of the fish that in a lot of countries is highly prized, but here it usually gets dumped. We are trying to heighten the profile of what you can get out of a fish to make the most of it.
“The cod tongues are good in a stir fry, it is a different texture and taste and we are selling them here in the shop and there are all different recipes on the Internet. We ship a grain of the tongues and monk cheeks south too. It also means less dumping of waste.”
Some of the local halls have been ordering cod tongues for deep frying in batter along with haddock for fish supper nights. Another portion good for frying or fish pie is the “lug” of meat from near the dorsal fin of the cod.
Opening hours: 10am to 6pm Mondays to Saturdays
Contact details:
Telephone: 01595 690111
Facebook: www.facebook.com/islandfishshetland/
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