FISH AND CHIPS! STAND UP AND BE RECOGNISED!
Posted by Stelios Theocharous July 14, 2010 - 12:10 pm
See below for information.
I really do spend too much money on diesel and my mobile phone bill, for me they both go hand in hand. Once I am in the car and I have far to go I have a network of close people I can call and vent of some steam.
On this occasion I was talking to a good friend who was thinking about what will happen in January 2011 when the VAT goes up 2.5%. Although most fish and chip shops will pass the rise to customers we fully accept that some wont and will just take the hit on the margins, as we are an honest industry selling a fish which cannot be stretched to make it go further (lets say like you can a cow or chicken) we have to at some point bite the bullet and increase with the rate that the government set.
It doesn’t help when the media then publicize that certain supermarkets will be absorbing the increase, however what they don’t say is that they will possibly hold their supplier ransom or just put their prices up well before the vat rise so no one notices it.
Even so I sometimes hear from Jo Public that Fish & Chips is now an expensive meal and that it doesn’t represent good value for money. I would think that the national average of fish and chips is now around a fiver I thought it would be fair to compare this to some other foods.
Subway Foot Long Sandwich £4.40- £5.00
Local Indian Take Away: Chicken Tikka Masala £6.40 + Pilau Rice £2.00 + Plain Naan Bread £1.60 = Total £10.00
Local Chinese Take Away: BBQ Spare Ribe (starter) £4.00 + Sweet & Sour Chicken £4.50 + Egg Fried Rice £4.00 = Total £12.50
Dominoes Pizza: Large Pepperoni Pizza £14.99 + Chicken Wings £3.99 + Potato Wedges £3.49 = Total £22.47 (per person £5.62)
Local Cinema: Large Popcorn + Large Drink = £6.00
Just to make the point I really have no problem with any of those foods, these are the only ones I could find to hand. However people pay over £4 for a coffee from Starbucks, and over a fiver for a Big Mac meal from McDonald’s.
Fish & Chips is 150 years old and the media and the public need to learn to be proud of the national dish, the positive message needs to be sent out to consumers that most fish and chip shops make such a big impact on their local community and often than most they are the only companies that sponsor local teams. In comparison to the other foods I have mentioned fish and chips is by no means diet food, but is has a lower content of fat than the others.
The fish and chip shops I know go to huge extremes to make sure they source and prepare the best fish and chips. It may only be potatoes and fish but the potatoes vary from field to field and week to week and the prices fluctuate all the time, fish is getting harder and harder to get your hands on now and because fish and chip shops try and get the best responsibly caught fish, however it is usually easy to get bet now the prices will also creep up as the yanks are buying more because of the oil spill.
The fish and chip industry is possibly going to go through the same decline as the bakery and pub industry has gone through and it is up to customers to find the best fish and chip shop local to them, and remember freshly cooked is best and a fiver isn’t expensive. A fiver is just an average and I understand that it varies from London to Leeds, but ask your self this question if the fish is huge and doesn’t taste of much and the chips are squashed and soggy is that what fish and chips means to you?
Note to Fish & Chip Operators:
You need to start on a local level be confident and serve the best fish and chips you can possibly serve, don’t go crazy on your portions and protect that profit margin. A customer would rather have a reasonable portion of Fish & Chips cooked perfectly rather than a massive portion that ends up in the bin.
*Written by Mark Petrou, Image used with authors permission. Please follow this link for more information http://www.thebattercompany.co.uk/blog/fish-and-chips-a-national-treasure/
Comments
Leave a Reply
- received a fantastic nutritional report today from a user that uses beef dripping...
- Three more nutritional reports in the pipeline and a few being started next week too..
- Started in Walsall this morning, then to Mansfield, then to Leicester, then to Nuneaton, then to Rugby, Back... http://t.co/llXwcqY3
Excellent Blog. I think fish and chips has always been seen as a cheap meal and that is why we get a little resistance from customers to price rises. In this day and age we have the same rise in costs as every other business, raw materials, wages, employee holidays, fuel costs. We have to pass some of this cost onto the customers. The worse thing we could do as an industry is to but inferior raw materials to try and cut costs. We have to trade on quality to protect the fish and chip ‘brand’.
I try to source the best raw materials, and serve them in nice, clean, modern shops (when my refits are finally complete they will be anyway!) All this comes at a cost but people apreciate quality and will travel for it. Charging a fair price for products still makes it a cheaper option than every other takeaway option, and the chinese isnt using prime fillet steak in a beef stirfry, we, as a trade, do use the finest cod and the most expensive potatoes.
Superb Blog! I totally agree with Stelios and if you look at the Indian food prices £10 for one adult that’s quite a lot. So if you bought 4 portions of what has been described to feed let’s say 2 adults and 2 teenagers that comes to £40. If the national average price for Fish and Chips is £5 and you purchase 4 portions that’s £20!! Everyone do the Math! Half price compared to an Indian takeaway. I, like Andrew, am in the industry and source the best quality raw materials and have just recently been assesed by Seafish and have been awarded 5 stars for the second year in succession and fully understand all the hard work and effort involved in producing quality fish and chips. I fully agree with Andrew Crook’s comment that we need to trade on quality and maintain the fish and chip brand. My only concern is that will the public see it that way? As Fish and Chips always seems to get bad press from the media and scare mongering that fish is going to run out etc.We need to find a way to get national tv coverage with a 1 hour long program at peak time to demonstrate to the public that Great British Fish and Chips is the healthiest take away meal and the lengths the industry goes to, to source sustainable caught fish. I know this is difficult and will cost a lot of money but it could be funded from the large distributors Neoda, Drywhite, Defra, etc as it would of course benefit them too because the busier the fish and chips shops become, the more supplies we will order. To summarise if anyone from the media reads this? Please send a message that we should be proud of this Great British take away instead of giving it negative publicity and disrespect!!
Another great blog which brings things nicely into focus and the comparisons made with other take-away foods available are very pertinent.
As always, I am speaking as a customer and not from a business point of view and I totally agree with the opinion of the blogger that customers would prefer to have smaller portions of tasty, well cooked fish and chips which are not soggy and stuck together.
Its absolutely imperative that as an industry we protect our great product, but I think the inevitable will happen and lots of fish and chip shops will become cheap and pile it high take away’s and the number of fish and chip shops will plummet but the quality should go up.
Just found this blog whilst looking for a good local chippy to me.
Where I lived before in Liverpool you just couldn’t find a good fish and chip shop for love nor money, every where you go they sell kebabs, pizza and chinese food and fish & chips seems to be a side line.
I know have relocated to a small village in Yorkshire and looking for a great chippy.
Great comments + nice to see passion in this industry.
JH
from the valleys in South Wales,
There is nothing better than smelling and seeing freshly cooked chips and crispy battered fish being served in front of your eyes, you know it’s fresh it’s just been done on front of you not behind some screen or through a seperate door.
Traditional Fish and Chip shops deliver good quality freshly prepared food at a reasonable price to the local people, the reason Fish and Chips is celebrating 150 years is because it’s a good reliable source of staple foods.
To all Fish and Chip shops keep up the good work, source good produce, cook it well and be proud of what you do and at about £5 a portion that can be 2 take aways ( 2 nights not cooking at home) and still less calories a week than 1 of the other take aways mentioned.