Need to adapt inspired creation of brand where consumer comes first
WHEN global consultancy firm Mckinsey and Company published its latest briefing earlier this month on how to prepare for the “next normal”, the obvious target audience might have been the financial, technical and manufacturing sectors but the implications of adapting swiftly to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic go far beyond that.
In the north west Highlands, Wester Ross Fisheries has sites at Loch Kannaird, Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom. When the company, founded in 1977 as Scotland’s oldest independent, owner-operated salmon farm was confronted by the first coronavirus lockdown last year it faced a massive loss of business as the food service sector, including the premium restaurants it supplied, was forced to shut down.
The problem extended beyond the UK, explains Managing Director Gilpin Bradley: “There was a staged global lockdown and as 70 per cent of our sales are exported we had to be very resourceful and adaptable virtually overnight.”
Then, at the end of the year, came Brexit and with countless other small companies Wester Ross Salmon had to innovate, modernise and stay resilient on two new, daunting fronts.
“We had to implement change quickly,” recalls Bradley. “Our ethos has always been to work with privately-owned, independent retailers and restaurateurs but these were suffering significantly so we had to look beyond B2B (business-tobusiness) to establish a B2C (business-to-consumer) sales model.”
This quickly led to the launch of Osprey Artisan Co, a new company and brand focused on online retail with a website and app at the end of summer 2020, originally tested on family and friends and noting the growing tendency of customers to order from mobile devices. Going directly to consumers required a fresh approach: “The processing team, used to loading pallets on to a truck were now being asked to make sure that they put a ‘thank you’ card or a special note into the box. That takes a very different mindset so we’ve dedicated couple of days a week to putting serious resource behind the B2C work,” he says.
The venture was underpinned by existing social media activity and Osprey Artisan as a separate brand brings the opportunity sell other Highland produce alongside salmon.
“We hope to grow our offering by diversifying our product range, collaborating with other Scottish artisan producers to build a truly premium range for our customers in the UK and internationally. There’s great produce here but it’s not always easy to get it to market
– so if we can add it to a basket of other products we’re selling it helps others to generate some trade,” he says.
Highland businesses, he adds, often work quite closely together for the greater good.
“We share many of the same challenges and there’s a long history of businesses cooperating.”
Despite the pandemic, the company has increased its headcount owing to existing plans for growth. “Covid-19 certainly presented a challenge but with the exception of a few office staff, almost our entire team spends their working day at sea, which is the lowest risk environment in terms of social distancing.
“Even so, we’ve set up bubbles for each site, with minimal transfer of people between sites. You’ve just got to follow the guidelines and be careful,” says Bradley.
Despite the rapid innovations of the past year, he says the company’s culture remains the same.
“We take a real pride in the fish we are rearing. Both we and our customers are very particular about the end product that we want; namely a slow-growing, hand-reared salmon.
“That means that we, not machines or cameras, are on the water every day to feed and observe the fish.”
“The processing team were now being asked to make sure that they put a ‘thank you’ card into the box. That takes a very different mindset