The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Innovation fuels growth for shellfish business
DALGETY BAY: Growing range of products proving popular in the global marketplace
A Fife company which developed a unique shellfish transportation system is on target to meet its £1 million turnover target, as it moves into larger premises and takes on more staff.
Dalgety Bay-based Todd Fish Tech said it has been “three times busier than it has ever been in the last quarter” and marked its fifth year in business by moving into a new 3,500sq ft facility at the Hillend Industrial Estate.
The premises have doubled the workshop capacity, allowing for greater research and development facilities, as well as dedicated showroom space.
The firm first developed the Lobster Pod, which creates optimum conditions for holding shellfish.
The units utilise a filtration system which requires less space and water, reducing transport costs.
The Lobster Pod remains the headline product for the firm, but the Todd Fish Tech team have also developed units to store and transport crabs, which have specific conditioning needs, while an oyster system is also now on the market.
Chief executive Errin Todd said many of the crabs caught around the UK are exported to the Far East.
She said the first customers of the Crab Pod had been very happy with the results, which had seen survival rates increase from 70% to 99% after the system had been introduced.
The firm’s year-on-year growth has also seen an increased headcount, which has seen the addition of two agency staff during lockdown and one trainee, while recruitment is under way for a fourth addition, almost doubling previous staff levels.
Ms Todd, said a number of UK fishermen and fish merchants had been able to access grants to purchase
Lobster Pods, while large contracts had helped drive growth.
Repeat and referred business now accounts for 40% of sales at the firm, which manufactures all of its units on site.
She said: “We have targeted markets for expansion, including Europe and the Far East, and having made sales to America, we would like to build on that market. Another goal is to open a branch abroad and one of the locations under consideration is Nova Scotia.”
The firm has a policy of continuous product development and while it is currently able to hatch lobsters and keep them to the juvenile stage, the ultimate aim is to be able to grow them to maturity, which can take between five and seven years in the wild.
Ms Todd said the aim of the firm was to have “happy lobsters as well as having happy staff”.