Morgan’s Fine Fish, a long-established family seafood business based in Omeath, Co Louth, were successful in launching their first ever ready to cook product range, Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen, this year with support from the Taste 4 Success Skillnet ReBound programme, supported through the Skillnet Ireland ReBound initiative.
According to Gillian Morgan, new product development manager with Morgan’s Fine Fish, the Taste 4 Success Skillnet ReBound programme which is designed specifically for SMEs in the food, agri-food, seafood and beverage sector, has been a vital support to the business. “Morgan’s Fine Fish has been a family business for 160 years and we have been supplying seafood to retailers and foodservice customers for over 30 years,” she says.
Significant Challenge
“We have faced many challenges over that time, but nothing could have prepared us for Covid-19. We had spent considerable time and investment in developing our first ready to cook retail range just before the pandemic hit. With restrictions ruling out in-store tastings, we had a significant challenge ahead of us to get this range to market.
“Funding from Taste 4 Success Skillnet and excellent training from our mentor Vivienne Gleeson helped us to develop our communications strategy. This allowed us to move on to secure PR expertise to successfully launch Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen.”
Since the official launch in mid-September, Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen has continued to achieve positive customer reviews, media coverage and increasing listings in select Dunnes Stores, SuperValu and independent stores throughout Ireland.
Read to cook range
Morgan’s Seafood Kitchen is a range of three complete seafood meals for one, including Katsu Fish Curry, Caribbean Prawns and Spicy Lemongrass and Lime Seafood. Each meal contains quality raw seafood with fresh vegetables from Country Fresh in Dundalk, a nutritious and tasty sauce, and a portion of basmati rice. With an average of only 360 calories per meal, this low fat, high protein range appeals to busy professionals, parents and health-conscious consumers.
In addition to the ReBound programme, Gillian Morgan also benefited from a place on the Taste 4 Success Skillnet Masterclass series in partnership with Trinity College Dublin - Tangent, Trinity Ideas Workspace.
“Innovation is a key part of any business and as we work with a highly perishable product, innovative ways of prolonging shelf life, packaging and logistics are always top of the agenda for us,” says Morgan. “To get further support from Taste 4 Success Skillnet to upskill in this area and to become a professional alumni of Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace is an amazing achievement for me personally and for the company.”
Morgan’s Fine Fish processing facility operates according to Bord Bia’s Origin Green sustainability charter
The ReBound programme ran from June to October and is one of many initiatives run by Taste 4 Success Skillnet, which is co-funded by Skillnet Ireland. The focus was on assisting SMEs in implementing the ‘Return to Work Safely’ Protocol and to help these businesses navigate a secure recovery.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Maev Martin. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
