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/

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FREE MARKET ECONOMY. REALLY?

Posted by Stelios Theocharous June 29, 2010 - 8:31 am

Written for Fish & Chips & Fast Food Magazine, June 2010

I get a little confused sometimes with business terminology and today I was thinking about the Free Market Economy. Definitions of the free market economy state that prices are set freely and are set by supply and demand. However it also states that government should have little interference.

Hypothetically every company should be able to set their prices regardless of government help and it should be an even playing field. There should be no advan­tages other than that the business which supplies a better product/service will be able to grow better and the business which does not offer such a good product/service will be less busy and will have to face the fact they are doing something wrong and should learn to get better. However I say “hypothetically” above because it is only hypothetical in the UK!

Imagine you’re at the London 2012 Olympics and Usain Bolt wins the 100m again, but the person who comes last also gets a gold medal because the organisers thought this was unfair for him to come last and not have a medal . There would be an uproar, I hear you say! Well, in this country, the government gives businesses that turnover less than £68,000 the benefit of not charging VAT. Granted there are not many fish and chip shops that turnover this amount, however is this supposed to be a FREE MARKET ECONOMY?

I don’t think so – because the government has taken it upon themselves to give businesses that needn’t charge VAT a 17.5% advantage, instead of having a fair policy that makes it fair for everyone to compete. This advantage increases the risk of people cooking the books to bring them under the threshold, and – to a degree – it is also stopping them from moving their businesses forward.

But do customers know about this? If – or should I say when? – there is a VAT increase with the next budget, then there will be an even bigger gap and customers will then think the shop that is cheaper is now 20% cheaper…it doesn’t make sense and you know it!

Currently we charge 17.5% VAT and there are rumours that they may up that another 2.5% to (a) catch up with Europe and (b) to fill that gaping black hole we call a government bank account. There are a number of items in the UK that you do not have to pay VAT on, for example books, magazine subscriptions, loans, newspapers and children’s clothes to name a few. Zero rated or exempt goods tend to include those things that everybody needs to buy in order to have a normal life. But hot food is not classed as a necessity, so VAT has to be charged on it at the standard rate.

However, as many of you will know, you do not have to pay VAT on hot food sold by the likes of Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Greggs Bakery. Although this list is not comprehensive, it covers most of those that are doing it, and they are possibly the ones that get away with the most. So how can they do it?

Well, to put it in a nutshell, the VAT legislation in this context is an ASS! It was created to make extra money for the coffers to get the country out of the last recession, and it worked. But it has always been a grey area – and the small businesses that cannot afford to clarify the legislation carry on charging VAT on the hot food they sell, whilst the big guns like the supermarkets and Greggs just carry on selling it ex-VAT. They say that because they do not try and keep the food hot and it is not intended to be eaten hot that they do not need to charge VAT. But in many cases it IS being eaten hot and again with the advantage of being ex-VAT.

So can someone please point out to me where our free market economy with little government interference is at the moment?

It begs the question can we live in a free market economy without government control? Without giving all the big companies tax breaks to employ hundreds of people and VAT breaks for being so big. Why can’t we put all businesses on a even playing field where we all pay the same rate of tax and VAT and the rest of it is left down to branding, PR and quality of food, service or product? It does make you wonder.

But what can be done? I am sure my friends and the National Federation of Fish Friers are reading this, and I have a new lease of respect for them (a little bit more, anyway!) because they seem to have pulled themselves out of the fire – and now they are all working together, it shows a positive relationship which should filter through to the rest of the industry.

I would think that if NFFF started an open campaign to find out exactly why there are such differences within the VAT sector, a campaign where they rally shops for their support, our industry would really welcome it. For once, we could all see what the NFFF is doing and then watch the member numbers rise! I would give support to such a campaign.

However, I must be clear, I’m not talking about abolishing VAT because there is more chance of me opening a chippy on the moon! But what we DO want is clarification on the VAT rules about hot food, particularly with the supermarkets and bakery chains. If the reason they don’t have to charge VAT IS because they don’t keep their food hot, maybe we should take a leaf out of their book. If we were to take out the thermostats for our heaters and only cook food fresh to go, without keeping it hot, then we would have conformed with the legislation.

But we’d need national backing initially to get the clarification we want and I really would like to see the NFFF get behind this to create an action plan.

How about it, Federation?

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THERE’S MORE COMPETITION THAN YOU THINK.

Posted by Stelios Theocharous March 1, 2010 - 8:06 am

Written for Fish & Chips & Fast Food Magazine, March 2010 Issue

In the last issue I touched on competition and how it is not just fish and chip shops we should be concerned about, but other food options in general rather than fish and chip shops all the time. If we look at the big picture we have to now compete nationally but also, at the same time, locally.

So let’s face it we need to realise there is direct competition within our industry. I hear every day that there are new fish and chip shops opening next to established shops every day, but this is the way life is – we have to just get used to it.

To take a quote from someone I recently spoke to: “Who said there is a god given right to no competition?”

And you seriously have to consider, if there was no competition within the trade what would fish and chips still be like? You could imagine how shops would never be stylish, they would be old fashioned with old ranges. As operators you have admit that competition is one of the reasons that makes you want to keep your shop looking trim and clean, do refits and buy the latest preparation and frying gizmos and other technology, including the modern ranges on offer today.

I know that a lot of people in the trade don’t agree with me and my ideas about competition in the industry, but that’s life. I don’t really write this for people’s approval, but to get people thinking! I know there are some shops that really get along with competitors’ shops in their area, however this is not the case everywhere.

Last month I thought I would rattle a few cages, however I had a few text messages of support which does not usually happen! Usually people avoid conversation with me when it comes to my articles. I don’t really have the history of many others, I don’t have the flair of that posh Fen person, but I like to show a different side to the industry.

Yes, it may be a little negative from time to time, but that’s life, the balance needs to be restored. I really think competition is good and healthy for business, and after all it’s better for our customers.

So the flipside is that after you get over the fact that you have competition within the industry, how will you rise to the challenge? Or will you just sit there and take it and have the odd grumble? Maybe then it will dawn on you that the food sector is huge and everyone wants a piece of the action when it comes to fish and chips, and that’s NOT just other fish and chip shops!

I have seen so far the following companies doing fish and chips:

• Tesco store restaurant

• Asda store restaurant

• Frankie & Bennies

• Beefeater Restaurants

• Pubs

• Gordon Ramsay Pubs

• Marks & Spencer Ready Meal

• Youngs Ready Meal

Isn’t it strange how the nation’s favourite is being imitated by so many different companies, some better and some worse than our offering? Some people will say that you cannot beat fish and chips from a chippie, but customers are still buying from elsewhere, whether we like it or lump it.

So there we have the imitators copying our great national dish, which is bad enough, but what of those “all you can eat” offerings? There is a new (or at least, new to me) company called Taybarns which is owned by the Whitbread group. They do a staggering “all you can eat” selection of grilled foods, salad, pasta, chip shop, the spice rack, carvery…the list is endless and all for £5.99 – all you can eat.

This is their chip shop menu:

• Chips (of course!)

• Battered fish

• Fish cake

• Minced beef & onion pie

• Saveloy sausage

• Plain roast chicken

• Mushy peas

• Curry sauce

Could you serve this in your fish shop for as little as £5.99, and let customers keep coming back for more?

I could not tell you about the quality of the food, I have not eaten there. (If anyone has and can pass a judgement on the quality of the food, do let Wendy know).

All I can say is be ready.

Fish and chips is now not a specialist product. Believe it or not, it has been simplified. There are multiple ways being used to cook them, with chips being par fried and fish either being fried or oven cooked. Frying ranges now lift chips when they are ready and the timer has finished. The timer also lets you know when fish is ready. Frozen fish comes portioned and with a consistent thickness. I expect to start seeing fish and chips growing faster and faster outside the traditional fish and chip shop.

Ask yourself this – how are our customers going to separate the cream from the milk?

Answers on a postcard, or preferably to the Editor!

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OPEN & HYGIENIC OR CLOSED!

Posted by Stelios Theocharous December 1, 2009 - 7:59 am

Written for Fish & Chips & Fast Food Magazine, Nov/Dec 2009

I haven’t commented on this subject before, as I think that time was needed for the whole debate to settle and the evidence to come forward. Earlier this year, a fish and chip shop was closed by the local authorities because their customers had contracted E.coli 0157. I have some issues about this whole case and although it seems like I am targeting the shop, if you read on, you will see I am focusing on the whole incident and its wider meaning.

I spend most of my time visiting fish and chip shops giving out batter samples and the other part working in our shop. I see some brilliant shops, and I can honestly say hand on heart that the percentage of shops that are dirty, and unclean to the eye has been well under 1%. I think it is easiest to blame a poor shop on the shop owner, and to be fair most of it is his/her fault. However, customers do have the choice not to go there. I know from my own experience how my customers appreciate a nice clean shop to buy their food from. If they didn’t think we were clean would they shop with us? I don’t think so!

When the shop in question was closed, it was because the local authorities had concerns that the public might be at risk. Now, E.coli is mostly found in beef and vegetables, so this is my first issue. Heat kills E.coli, that’s issue number two, and my third issue – in case you’re thinking I am sticking up for the shop in question – is if it is possible that this shop did give customers E.coli why was it still in business?

Please stay with me – there is a lot of information to take in, and I hope after you have read it we will all look at our practices a bit harder.

Beef and vegetables are the most likely source of E.coli, so in our business this could be down to burgers, potatoes, and kebabs, if you do them, because they have beef in them too. So it’s possible the shop in question had left his meat products uncovered in the danger zone for great lengths of time and then cooked them inadequately and then served them to these unsuspecting customers – but I cannot understand why anyone would do this. The proprietor had been in business for 17 years so he should know a thing or two about keeping customers (although his claim to fame is quite the opposite now). Then you come to potatoes, because as you know they are a vegetable, and E.coli can be present on potatoes from cattle manure. But we do wash the potatoes thoroughly and then they get chipped and usually washed again – but even assuming all the mud has gone there is still a risk that there is E.coli on the raw chips. Which brings me to my next point.

Heat is the one thing we have in abundance in fish and chip shops. If it’s not fryers, it’s kebab machines or ovens or even cookers and we now have loads of red tape in fish and chip shops about making sure things are hot over 75oc and then held above 68oc and then making sure all frozen foods and chilled foods are kept to the correct temperatures.

So let’s take this step by step: we have prepped the chips, and our fish has been delivered. We’re ready to prep up and my pans are set to 180oc. I make my batter and I then start cooking. I start to add my fish by battering and laying into the pan, where the temp is 180oc, though it may drop a little over the next 5-8 minutes depending on how you cook your fish, with chips or without. The fish is piping hot when it comes out – well above 100oc – and then my heater is set to 80oc, so that’s quite safe isn’t it? Then my chips cook for around 6-8 minutes at 180oc. OK, the temperature will fluctuate depending on the parameters ie: how many chips you added to pan, temperature of pan, state of oil etc, but still they are fairly safe and my health inspector said there is more chance of the pope coming to visit my shop than somebody getting food poisoning from my chips! I know that not all shops do kebabs and burgers but it is relevant because a lot of shops do, so my kebabs are on a high heat and to be fair I have been trained for years to make sure it’s not raw, and usually it’s very simple to tell: the cooked meat has a cooked colour of greyish brown, and raw is red so it’s fairly obvious. When cooked, the meat either gets served fresh or goes into a bain marie at about 80oc.

For my third issue, we go back to the customer who is ill or a customer who eats food from a shop so dirty that against all the odds explained above E.coli was still found. I just can’t understand it. Surely such a shop would be visibly unhygienic? WHY would customers eat in a place like this? So before we get as far as the council, I believe customers are at fault if they choose to support a business which is obviously dirty and has very bad hygiene practices. They really are asking for trouble, aren’t they? It’s just like a disclaimer on a building that’s about to be demolished – there is a warning sign saying “do not enter”, so if you do, it’s at your own risk! For customers in the food industry, the “signs” are dirt, rubbish, and general uncleanliness – if they disregard them, it’s at their own risk, but I still can’t under­stand why anyone would patronise a dirty shop and help keep it open for business.

I know most fish and chip operators are thinking along the same lines, because – while a handful of shops with poor hygiene practises do damage the look of the whole industry because of the stereotype – I can tell you that in some of the shops I have visited since being in this job, I would happily eat off the floor (well, sitting on it because that’s just plain wrong!) because they’re that clean, so it’s a very small minority that lets us down.

My last point which leads on from this is that health inspectors are not doing a proper job. Their departments are under-funded and they cannot keep up with the number of food shops that are selling inferior food in an unhygienic setting. We see our health inspector once every 3 – 6 months depending on how busy he is, and when I see some of the food establishments locally (all food takeaways and restaurants) I do feel let down at the least.

I think that everyone is to blame in this particular case: the customers, the owner and the council. I believe if a shop is not good enough it should be closed until further notice, which would send a strong message to the public and the owners of food establishments. Rather than messing about with star systems or smiley faces, if they want to raise standards give just two choices – Open & Hygienic or Closed!

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GOING ONLINE, IS IT TIME?

Posted by Stelios Theocharous October 1, 2009 - 7:29 am

Written for Fish & Chips & Fast Food Magazine, October 2009 Issue

I am very sure that a lot of you have been reading in the paper or listening on the news about one of Britain’s biggest companies having union problems; not only is it one of Britain’s largest companies it is owned by the government, and for, those of you that don’t understand why I am writing about this then I will explain to you a number of reasons.

• I believe it can affect the industry & retail as a whole.

• I believe a trade magazine should focus on outside news as well, because national issues affect us all

• I would like to write about something a little out of the box

So back to the Royal Mail…they employ around 120,000 people – that is a big number, generally I would imagine that calculates to 120,000 households all over the country, They are about to go on strike to prove a point, if not nationally yet, they are regionally. I don’t know if any of you have been affected by this but it has been a terror around here. You see my concern is this: if region by region people start going on strike it is not going to be a good thing, I am not just referring to the Royal Mail staff spending money in our shops – here is a list of problems.

• Your payments being received late and thus annoying the supplier.

• Your payments to you being received late thus annoying you.

• Your customers getting paid late thus annoying them.

• Everything bodged up in time for Christmas, all retail business messed up.

• Everything comes late.

See, it might not seem important, but the fact is they send millions of letters a week, though the number is falling, I only know that from the postal workers’ side of things, they want more money and better hours, whereas the Royal Mail want to modernise their workforce and ultimately – yes – employ less staff, but they say that they need to make these changes if they are to compete with the private companies.

It is not a story that effects all the people in Britain, most people say give the job to someone else! But it will affect the people who receive letters and money from others. If it causes a stress on people’s finances what will happen to their shopping habits? You have to ask yourself this question. A lot of self employed people get paid through the mail via cheque; a lot of elderly and people who don’t work get their pensions and benefits through the post. So if a small proportion of people in the UK get their payments late it could all go pear shaped. In the last postal strike over 200 million letters were backlogged and put in storage until they could get them sent out,. Because of these regional strikes there are already 30 million and the number is rising, The AA has warned that drivers could get big fines and their cars impounded if the ANPR (Automated Number Plate Recognition system) is not updated with who has paid their road tax. The system will automati­cally send out fines to people who think they have paid their road tax. And let’s not think about what the rogue car park companies will do if their payment is not received. If you get caught driving without insurance because your payment hasn’t arrived, you could get up to 6 points and a £5000 fine. Even if all problems are reversed at a later date because the letters start to go through, what about the stress of all this on the nation? If people start losing their jobs because of certain situa­tions that are out of their control it will not be good for anyone.

I know Royal Mail isn’t directly involved with our industry, but with a company as big as this and given its role in the country, it will still have an impact on our businesses. Maybe this will give us all a kick in the you know where to start going online and digital. But where does that leave our suppliers who have not done so yet?

What do you think? Isn’t it time we started ordering our materials and supplies online where we can, and paying our bills through the internet banking system?

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SAVE MONEY BY WASTING TIME… HMMM

Posted by Stelios Theocharous September 1, 2009 - 6:49 am

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