Our First Six Months
Friends have been asking how the business is going, so I thought I'd share some thoughts here.
Fat Fingers is now six months old and I’m proud of where we’ve got to - we have an amazing team, are making delicious fish fingers with local fish and are building an awesome community of stockists and customers. However, it’s not been easy or straightforward. I’ve loved the last six months, but as well as being exciting, interesting and fun, it’s also been slightly terrifying and stressful. Here are a few key moments:
Recipe development and launching in shops was very fun. George and I spent weeks working with the Four Boys and Fee’s team to perfect the recipe. With experienced chefs doing all the heavy lifting (sorry and thank you Matt), I have great memories of tasting hundreds of fish fingers and hosting some fish finger tasting parties - a good excuse for a get together and a drink more than anything. I was then in Fee’s Deli when we sold the first pack, standing behind the counter grinning at some unassuming father and daughter who were just trying to do their shopping in peace.
Launching was easy, building a sustainable business has been harder. Having done the fun jobs like perfecting the recipe, designing the packs and setting up social media, we turned our attention to the more pragmatic side of the business, from operations to finance. Unit economics is something that now consumes my mind. Our business is quite simple: make fish fingers for less than we sell them for. Easier said than done with high overheads and variable fish prices. The challenge is making uncompromisingly delicious food in a cost effective way, balancing the romance of the recipe with the unsexyness of my costing spreadsheet.
One of the most interesting but challenging parts of the business has been fish sourcing. Since responsible fish sourcing is at the heart of our business, this is of course something we put a lot of time and effort into. It’s been a massive learning curve - for myself especially, as George has run a fish restaurant for years. The bottom line is that responsible fish sourcing is complicated, from understanding what makes fish responsible (catch method, species, locality), to navigating seasonal and nature driven markets where landings and prices vary. The more I understand, the more I realise I don’t know, so we’re lucky to work with experienced people like George Cleave and Becki Jarvis, as well as people like the Newlyn Market team who hosted us last month.
On this point, we wouldn't be anywhere without the brilliant people we’re surrounding ourselves with. They say hire people better than you, and we’ve definitely done that with our team. Particular shoutout to our chef Henry, who we’ve been so lucky to hire. It’s honestly been game changing having someone so hard-working and invested in the product.
Wrapping up this (slightly random) reflection, we're now looking ahead and planning for the future. If the first six months have been about proving the product and business, the next will be about growing it in the right way.
Hamish x
