The fish and chip industry is celebrating a successful Easter weekend, with record sales, long queues and a welcome boost in trade after a challenging winter.
Despite mixed weather across the UK, the traditional Good Friday fish supper still proved popular, bringing in loyal locals, returning families and even international visitors.
Murray Watson of Carron Fish Bar in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, described the weekend as the best trading period since last summer, with trade up around 40% on a normal weekend.
“Friday was definitely the best since the summertime – same with Saturday and Sunday,” he comments. “Monday went a bit quieter with kids going back to school, but overall, it was really busy. You can tell it’s the turn of the season for coastal shops, we’re just hoping it will carry on through the summer.”
There was a clear appetite for fish and chips, with Murray commenting: “Yes, it was all fish and chips. We even had a gentleman from Dubai take his meal home in tin foil to his pregnant wife so that she could have traditional fish and chips from the UK. She was over the moon and we had a lovely voice note from her – it was nice to be part of that memory.”
In Leicester, Charlie Collins, owner of two fish and chip shops named Frydales, experienced a surprising surge in trade during what is usually his quietest weekend.
He comments: “Easter is typically my worst weekend of the year because people leave Leicester at their earliest opportunity. But my Hinkley Road shop was up 100% – it was a record Friday for us. My other shop was about 30-40% down on a normal Friday, which was to be expected.”
Charlie attributed the increase in trade to publicity from the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF). Charlie explains: “Hinkley Road made the Top 40 Fish & Chip Takeaways at the Fish & Chip Awards this year. The NFFF produced a map featuring all 40 shops which got picked up by our local paper and they did an article on us. It certainly did the trick for us. We were so busy it really caught us off guard. I drove from one shop to the other mid-shift, because one was empty and when I looked on the cameras, there was a queue out the door at the other one.
“We saw a lot of new faces, and everyone was after fish and chips, which is a really good sign.”
In Truro, Cornwall, Lauren Kellaway, owner of Kellaway’s Fish & Chips, echoed the sentiment, adding: “We had a record Friday – £800 to £1000 up on a normal one.
“The morning was an average morning but the evening went crazy. We’re not on the coast, we’re more like a village and our trade is regular customers, so we didn’t know what to expect as a lot of people go away at Easter. But we had a lot of big orders so people clearly had family down.”
Closed on Easter Sunday and Monday, Lauren praised her young team: “They handled it brilliantly. We had about a 20-minute wait on food but nobody really made any fuss because they could see that we were busy and continually working.”
Further east in Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, Marcus French, owner of French’s, reported a 10% increase on a typical busy bank holiday.
“Good Friday was one of our busiest days again, trade was probably up 10% on a normal bank holiday. We had a queue out of the shop most of the day and it was a case of serving as fast as we could so we were very pleased with it. Wells is a family town. We see generations come back, sharing memories of eating chips on quay wall, looking at the sea and smelling the salt— it’s very nostalgic.”
With a portion of fish and chips at French’s now priced at £12, Marcus believes customers still see value: “We’re not the cheapest but we give good value for money. We do a good 8-10 ounce piece of cod and a good portion of the chips. And people are happy to pay that as long as they think it’s a good value for money product.”
Easter didn’t disappoint for Towngate Fisheries in Idle, Bradford, either which had already experienced an extremely busy few weeks in the run up to Easter – breaking its takings record on two previous weeks out of the last six. Owner Mark Drummond comments: “This year, Good Friday was 12% more takings-wise than last year. Our prices have risen 6% so that’s half down to price rise and 6% or so extra volume.
“We sold 550 portions of fish on the day – not bad for a small takeaway with only a four pan range.”
Mark also reported a busy Easter Saturday, up 40% on last year, and Bank Holiday Monday, up 20%, adding that the recent publicity may have contributed. He comments: “There seemed to be more about fish and chips in the news this year than ever, and although not all positive in terms of price, I do think it puts it in people’s minds to eat fish and chips.”
Andrew Crook, president of the NFFF, acknowledged the strong performance across the UK, commenting: “It goes to show what a great dish we’ve got and that the traditional Good Friday is still fantastic for us.
“Obviously we’ve had some price rises over the last few months but people will still pay for quality and will still visit fish and chip shops. It’s just something that’s ingrained in people. So I think we can stand tall.”
With National Fish and Chip Day and VE Day on the horizon, Andrew hopes the momentum will carry through spring and summer, adding: “We’ve got quite a few big events coming up so all these things will hopefully get people into fish and chip shops, and people will get used to the prices.”
