As a medical equipment salesman, James Eagle traveled throughout Scandinavia and frequently encountered salmon or gravlax as the “main event” on menus.
Back in the UK, he realized that thinly sliced smoked salmon was a sidenote on our plates. “I always thought it was a shame,” says Eagle.
Redundancy from his sales job in 2013 allowed Eagle to start a smokehouse from a small shed below his garden in Camberwell, London, which turned from a hobby into the birth of his artisan brand – The Pished Fish.
Read more: Horticulturists call us our seed business ‘people want, not love’.
“In the UK, when you get a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel, it’s cream cheese and bagel that you can taste,” adds Eagle. “I liken it to how wafer-thin smoked salmon melts on a bagel.”
A university dropout, Eagle worked for drum and bass label Good Looking Records in the early 2000s and was LTJ Bookem’s PA before turning to a career in sales.
However, being fired from a job at a medical device firm left a “sour taste” and taught him “how to take care of my own staff now”.
In late 2014, Eagle visited the farmers market with house-smoked salmon in what he described as a “glorified filing cabinet” smoker. He would start at 1 a.m. for a 16-hour labor process.
He produced three different flavors, which sold out every weekend and convinced Eagle that a more profitable business was on the horizon.
Pissed Fish’s USP is using botanicals and alcohol — hence the fun company name — like whiskey, aquavit and vodka to flavor its alcohol-infused, Scandinavian-style smoked salmon. “The alcohol did what I thought was a lot of fun,” he recalls of his early smokehouse trials.
After meeting his now-wife Hermione through the dating site My Single Friend, the couple attended a course on how to start a food business. Eagle’s main takeaway was not to rely on product but to have a compelling brand.
He spent £4,000 on the design and logo. “It was really important to have someone better imagine what it could be,” he says. “I thought it was an awful lot of money at the time, but it was the best money you could spend.”
Read more: ‘We all grew up with radiators – underfloor heating is a no-brainer’
When a fishmonger in Selfridges later spotted the brand, the Eagles moved to East Sussex and went full-time to upscale the business. The start-up was based on his father’s estate near the Sussex Downs, initially in two shipping containers before moving to an adjacent building where Eagle today employs eight full-time staff.
The smoking technique has also been simplified with two stainless steel smokers costing £18,000. The business uses a mixture of Faroese and Scottish salmon with concoctions ranging from whiskey and maple syrup to honey and bourbon. No wonder the brand praises Salmon for being a “rock and roll persona”.
When COVID hit in 2020, online orders grew rapidly and soon profits per pack exceeded the 5p earned from a supermarket’s deli counter supply.
In 2022, their biggest order was marked by a founder’s wedding anniversary promotion with £10,000 in sales in one day. Eagle says the e-commerce side is very strong with email distribution now at 50,000.
By Christmas 2024, the business had made £40,000 in one day and had to close the website.
“Email is a great way to get to know your customers. It’s a great touch point to make it more human,” says the founder. “I think a lot of customers see the e-commerce business as a bit faceless but I always try to respond personally.”
The most challenging period for marketed fish came in 2023, without the tailwind of consumers spending online at home, and the following year when fish prices reached record levels.
Read more: ‘We made 25 jars at a time with six pans on the go – now our business boasts the best marmalade in the world’
Nevertheless, the Sussex firm has grown by 20% annually since 2020 and will break the £1m barrier by 2025. It was forecast to generate £5m in revenue based on pandemic forecasts, but Eagle was encouraged to pursue a slow and steady business approach to the growth it was pursuing.
This puts The Pished Fish in good stead as Eagle plans to target a £2m turnover over the next three years by maintaining customer acquisition, spending more on advertising and growing its email list.
“Earlier I didn’t treat it as an e-commerce business, we were a smokehouse and sold to the general public,” he says.
Start-up mentality
I still think we’re in the start-up zone and that’s about the face of the business and interacting with customers. We have always tried to keep a sense of humor with the brand.
problem solving
I am constantly trying to solve problems everyday. The dream of living in a small smokehouse, cutting and packing fish has to stop if you want to grow.
The biggest thing I still find stressful is letting people down or if an order hasn’t reached customers. There’s always something to keep you up at night.
Read more:
Download the Yahoo Finance app available for Apple and Android
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commissions or revenue on certain items through these links."A…
By Ariba ShahidKARACHI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Twenty-somethings flowed under the neon lights at Karachi's…
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis have moved to drop felony assault charges against…
WASHINGTON (AP) — There were Nobel Prize winners and acclaimed authors. Pioneers of science and…
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Tuesday became the first Republican senator to speak out against…
Mortgage rates edged lower this week, weathering volatility in bond markets. While bond yields fell…