Nothing beats the experience of eating the freshest fish, straight out the sea. But with a supply chain where 80% of our catch is exported, while the other 20% gets handled multiple times up the chain, is it really any wonder that these experiences are so few and far between?
Convinced we could do better for both fishermen and consumers, we set ourselves a challenge: build a scalable, sustainable supply chain where fishermen sell their catch directly to customers, have it delivered the same day, with every fillet traceable to the boat. Introducing Pesky Fish.
Our fishermen now receive the best and most stable prices for their catch, while we deliver the freshest supply into London customers - a day faster than the fastest competitor, using a fraction of the resources to do so. Having proven its value at both ends of the chain, our mission now is to onboard more boats and customer into our new model - helping us to build a better industry for the future.
Intended impact
For our consumers, we want to make the best quality, sustainable fish accessible and affordable, while giving them an unprecedented connection with the person who catches their food.
For our amazing fishermen, we want to revitalise the fleet - supporting their businesses with a larger market, higher, stable catch values and faster payments.
Underpinning our supply chain will be the introduction of new and simple technology to be used by both skippers and customers. While boats currently land their fish to the volatile markets, they will now be able to communicate and sell their catch direct to customers, achieving the best price - all while still at sea! Over time, and by proving its value, this knowledge will revolutionise the way the industry markets, regulates and sustains its fish and fishermen - starting in the UK, then across the world.
Substantial accomplishments to date
- Now delivering Cornish catch to customers in London as short as 8 hours after leaving the sea.
- Established in 3 ports with coastal packing partners, with 3 more ports post-funding.
- Delivering fresh fish supply into London on a Monday to a market that has only ever been served Tuesday-Saturday.
- Boats across 3 ports landing direct with 22 deliveries made by fishermen direct to their customers in 2017.
- Secured exclusive partnership with Intercity Railfreight to deliver same-day fish through rail network, enabling 99.7% of our journey to be carbon neutral.
- Full time trading as of October with an ever-growing number of repeat restaurant and home customers in Central London.
- Launched transactional website and Saturday shop in Spa Terminus market, with orders doubling month on month and £2K of smoked salmon in December.
- £4K/week only limited by our ability to service our restaurant customer's payment terms.
- Partnership with Succorfish for at-sea data capture system, supported by 80% match funding from EU.
Monetisation strategy
Where our traditional competitors add a % mark-up on what's landed or bought in the market (roughly 40%), Pesky makes a simple and fixed £/Kg distribution charge on every fish - supported by stable £/Kg value chain costs and comparatively tiny overheads vs competition.
This allows us to offer fishermen higher, stable prices for their catch while making the best quality fish more affordable than ever to our customers - encouraging participation at both ends of the chain.
Use of proceeds
Funds will be used to dramatically increase our capacity to buy from the boats and service more customers - helping us to immediately capitalise on the opportunity. Our primary areas of investment will be to implementing port, city and tech infrastructure, supporting cash flow and developing our brilliant team.
- 38% - Operational expenses (Establishing logistic networks, site overheads, targeted local marketing, team development)
- 36% - Working capital to support customer payment terms
- 19% - Capital expenditure for London site and single electric van.
- 6% - Data system development (supported by 80% matched EU grant)