The shellfish gene
Bob Fleming, md, The Big Prawn Company
After serving a chemistry-based apprenticeship with Heinz UK, my first senior job was technical manager at the firm's new ketchup business in Egypt where I was the only non-Arabic speaker. Needless to say I soon picked up a few choice phrases - some of which I still use today!
I stayed with the firm for 10 years working in different locations worldwide, until I got a call from an ex-Heinz colleague who was operations director at Cumbrian Seafoods. It was my first experience of an own-label business - a real culture shock - and the owner, Peter Vassallo, had a huge influence on me. Whether he had to helicopter, train, or automobile a delivery, he would never short a customer. This commitment to customer service was what separated Cumbrian from its competitors and I have brought this ethos to The Big Prawn Company.
When Sean O'Hanlon, chairman and owner of Big Prawn, asked me to join the business two years ago it just seemed to fit. I laugh more here than I've ever done at any other job. We're almost the antithesis of corporate suits. Because we're the outsiders - the little guys trying to open the door - we treat business life somewhat differently. That's why we can be irreverent in our advertising and in our approach to teamwork.
We exist and prosper on our innovations so we need to work as a collective. You can manage with an iron fist and you do get results, but you can also manage a group of people with a smile on your face and get even better results. I don't have to write in a contract that workers stay until the work is done. I know that if we run until nine or ten o'clock, everyone will stay back, including myself, the chairman and the commercial team. People on the production floor are a lot more comfortable working long hours when they see the management getting stuck in. It probably only happens once or twice a month when we're down to the wire, but it's hugely important for everyone to be seen as part of a team. These situations generally arise as a result of growth, so even if we are all working late, we are breaking sales records at the same time, which is no bad thing.
It's possible that it will be more difficult to maintain the team relationship as the business grows, but we will continue to invest in technology so that we don't have to go from 30 staff to 300. We've got one operator per line at the moment because we are highly automated. We might go from 30 to 50 employees and triple our output, but we'll still have the core values of our current staff. I don't want to employ people to put product in boxes - it's boring. I want to employ people that can drive a forklift, run a machine, programme an order and have a developing skill set. Our average hourly rate is in the upper quartile of pay for the industry, so I expect staff to have a number of skills.
From sea to snack
We buy from China, Vietnam, Chile, Canada, and Greenland dependent on species. The raw material is cooked and peeled at source and everything arrives frozen. We defrost as quickly as we can to maintain product quality, we add brine or gas for preservation and then we ship chilled product out to customers.
The traditional brine products have a shelf-life of six to eight weeks, but the newer Breakers (shellfish and dip snacks) and Seafood Sensations ranges (microwaveable shellfish starters, see page 18) have around 14 days.
Crayfish has been fantastic for us and, interestingly, sales weren't retailer driven. We were one of the first companies to import crayfish into the UK. We offered it to Pret a Manger and they grabbed it as something new and different. That was six years ago and it has since become a Pret signature sandwich. Now other sandwich manufacturers and retailers are starting to pick up on it. We're going to process 30% more this year than last year and we have just launched with a very large brewery chain, which is listing crayfish on its summer menu.
What we're seeing at the moment is nervousness around poultry. Sandwich manufacturers and pub chains are re-assessing alternatives in case of an outbreak of avian flu. Traditionally, firms were using frozen shellfish, but it took a day to defrost. By the time it was ready, the weather had often changed so wastage levels were horrendous. The advantage of brine is that products are ready to eat as soon as a customer orders. It's taken a while, but what Pret has been doing for years has finally caught on. Firms want seafood items on the menu that meet customer expectations with respect to health and convenience and are increasingly turning to shellfish.
Room for growth
The success of our products means we've been expanding so rapidly in recent years that space is becoming an issue - we're bursting at the seams. Two years ago, we could store finished goods for a week (produced to plan), but today we're turning over stock every 48 hours (produced to order). Our output is 2,000t and we're heading for 3,000t next year.
Before year end I need to expand the finished goods and manufacturing areas by 50%, so we are exploring a range of options.
If we expand in-house, we are looking at spending more than £1M over the next three to five years to take us to the next level, but it will be a very different number if we buy another business.
We have purchased a 5000m2 plot of land within our industrial estate to do a complete new build and we are also looking to acquire companies, both in the local area and further afield. We've put in an offer on a national seafood processor and we're in talks with another regional player that we are looking to acquire as a going concern.
Our target is to increase organic growth by 30% this financial year by offering our current customers a wider portfolio - both here in the UK and in our EU export markets. We've got a sourcing manager from Denmark who has great contacts and we're bringing in some fantastic fresh and smoked salmon and smoked trout. The factory currently has three production lines and I'm about to introduce a fourth and potentially a fifth for finished goods.
My other main goal is to secure relationships with suppliers as raw materials are still the substantial cost component of our business. We need to ensure we trade ethically and sustainably by spending more time in the countries of origin. When we started, it was almost a logistics operation, but now I want to direct from a technical viewpoint as well, focusing on sustainability, manufacturing, and efficiency.
We have full-time offices in China and Vietnam that ensure we lead the industry in terms of crayfish processing and I believe we can do the same with king prawns and tiger prawns.
We live in exciting times at Big Prawn. We will likely be in a significantly expanded factory next year or have moved completely, but I want to continue to drive achievements whilst retaining some measure of our core sense of fun.
Interview by Sarah Britton
FACTORY FACTS
Location: Marriot Way, Melton Constable, Norfolk, England. NR24 2BT. Tel: 01263 860 303
Products: King prawns, prawns, mussels and crayfish tails are available in modified atmosphere packaging for retail, or brined for further processing.
The company is also branching out into finished goods, while added value offerings include Breakers and Seafood Sensations
Employees: 34
Customers: Retailers, wholesalers, secondary processors
Size of factory: 2,000m2
Turnover: Over £10M
PERSONAL
Name: Bob Fleming
Career highlights: Helping to transform the Heinz business in Egypt from losing money to profitability. Also, taking The Big Prawn Company from long life to short shelf-life products in the space of a year, while keeping clients happy - customer service levels rocketed from 78% to 99.2%.
Domestics: Married to Sam, "with two beautiful daughters aged 16 and 20"
Outside work: "I'm an inveterate worldwide traveller and paraglider - ideally not at the same time."
