Expert Eye: Aman Dhesi, The Scrap Box, York, North Yorkshire

The Scrap Box in York is riding a wave of success, says Aman, with trade doubling since it won Fish & Chip Takeaway of the Year

It’s been about two months since The National Fish & Chip Awards in London and, honestly, it’s been fantastic. We knew we would get busy, but we’d heard mixed things from previous winners. Some said the impact is instant, others said it takes a couple of weeks to really kick in. In our case, it’s been a bit of both.

We saw an immediate uplift the very next day after winning, which I think was largely down to the level of media coverage we had. We were on This Morning, featured on GB News, Radio 5, and all the local press picked it up. What’s really different now compared to a few years ago is the power of local social media. All those local social media channels shared the news, and in some ways, that had an even bigger impact than the national coverage. It’s meant trade has doubled so far. Whether that continues, we’ll have to wait and see, but it really shows the transformational potential these awards can have on a business.

With that uplift, me and my brother Gavin have been in the shop a lot more, which we are more than happy about, but it’s definitely been a shift. Before, we had things running quite smoothly in what is quite a small unit so we used to alternate Thursday to Saturday, but now we’re pretty much both there every day. At the moment, it’s about riding this wave for a few more months and then putting stronger structures in place so we can free ourselves up a bit again. We’ve got plenty of ideas we want to explore, but we’re conscious not to rush away from the shop while things are so busy.

We’re also looking to bring in new staff and train them up. The good thing is, when you’re this busy, training becomes easier. There’s constant repetition on the till, on frying, on cleaning which all helps people pick things up quickly and build confidence.

We’ve also had a lot of visitors since the win, including some well-known YouTubers. Gary Eats, who’s got over half a million subscribers, came down, which was great. He gave us a 10 out of 10 and was particularly impressed with our lunchtime alternative species offering, which at the time was hake. Normally, those deals are more popular during the week with workers, and on a Saturday we might sell five or six if we’re lucky. But he posted his video on the Friday, and on the Saturday we sold 45 hake meals – exactly what Gary ordered. It just shows the impact someone with that kind of following can have. More importantly, it shows how trends can start to shift, especially when a shop like ours is pushing alternative species alongside holding a national title.

Looking ahead, we’ve got some exciting trips coming up. We’re heading to Iceland with Seafood from Iceland, which will be really interesting given most of our fish comes from there. There’s also a Norway trip to Ålesund with Seafood from Norway, and we’ve recently had the Japanese in to talk us through the Hunkyu British Fair we’ll be attending in October. That’s about three weeks we will be away for, so it gives us a clear timeline to make sure the shop can run smoothly without us, as both me and Gavin would really like to attend if we can.