A long-standing family business with a proud history and strong commitment to the Scottish fishing industry has fought to keep going against the odds during the coronavirus crisis.
Aberdeen-based J Charles, which has a retail unit in the city as well as processing facilities for the commercial market, took the “agonising” decision to stay open and build up their fledgling online delivery service ExpressFreshFish.com
The business was started 70 years ago by Wilfred Charles, carried on by his son John on his return from tea-planting in India, and is now run by his son Andrew who has led the company through many decades of difficult challenges.
“Andrew has always had a passion for the industry as well as working in it, but the onset of Covid has caused a lot of anxiety and what we have had to go through to continue has been fairly horrific,” said his wife Shirley, who also works in the business.
Rather than furlough or make redundant their 12 staff, the family decided to remain open and build up ExpressFreshFish.com which had been set up several years previously but not properly launched.
When the lockdown began, Andrew and Shirley’s 21-year-old son Henri, who had been training in the business, took it over and developed it.
The fledgling business is now a success, delivering fresh fish all over the country, but it has been 12 weeks of hard work for the staff and family, including daughter Libby. She had been training in Perthshire as an eventer when the pandemic hit but returned to help, packing fish and making deliveries, after first attending to her horse early each morning.
Said Shirley: “Henri was learning the business buying fish at Peterhead market every day but is now factory based in Aberdeen since Covid and although we had a website set up for ExpressFreshFish - ExpressFreshFish.com - we had no carriers and no process set up in the factory.
“In the beginning we were just getting one or two orders every couple of days but we kept working at it because it was a focus.”
However, after making the decision to keep going, the fishing boats tied up but Andrew continued to drive to Peterhead at 5am every morning to see if anything had been landed.
Once the boats stopped going out, the business’s regular transport companies, who would normally take the fish from Peterhead to Aberdeen, decided to furlough their staff which meant even more problems for J Charles.
“It really has been tough but we have just all had to work together,” said Shirley. “Normally I would just work in the office a couple of days a week but now I’m packing fish in the factory and making deliveries.”
Fortunately the boats started going out again and the transport companies restarted after a three week break.
Due to concerns about quality, the family made deliveries themselves with Henri at one point making a three hour round trip to Ballater to deliver two haddock to an elderly customer.
At the same time standards had to be maintained in the factory, while increasing hygiene measures and maintaining social distancing.
“The staff have been brilliant,” said Andrew. “In spite of alarming publicity all our staff, led by office manager Sarah and factory manager Jim, continued to work through this dark time with little time off. The importance of food workers was not supported at the start of Covid which made it difficult for factories like ours to remain open.”
Although it has had a slow start, the online service has given the family and staff a focus and now orders are coming in from as far away as the south of England including, perhaps surprisingly, other fishing towns like Portsmouth.
Repeat orders from satisfied customers are common, with many buying in bulk in order to freeze supplies.
Popular items are haddock, both smoked and fresh, cod, lemon sole and scallops and, as there is currently no continental market for Scottish produce, high end items like lobsters and langoustines have been added to the lines.
Sustainability as well as freshness is a priority for the company.
“One of the most important aspects of supplying quality Scottish fish to our customers is knowing the product comes from well-managed, sustainable fisheries,” said Henri.
“J Charles promotes all Scottish caught fish species as being sustainable and all customers who eat Scottish fish can do so with confidence it is coming from a rich abundant healthy fishery.
“Our aim is to make available to our customers top quality fresh Scottish sustainable fish landed by our Scottish fishermen.”
Supporting local charities is a key feature of J Charles and, as well as donating 10% of any online orders marked CWT to medical charity Camphill Wellbeing Trust, there is 10% off purchases from NHS and care workers.
ExpressFreshFish.com also has a Facebook page which carries fish recipes and tips on how to best cook their products.
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