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MARK Escolme, managing director, Young's Seafood and Findus in the UK said it was his love of fish and the vibrancy of the business which attracted him into the industry.
Addressing the Humber Seafood Summit in Grimsby, where he was the keynote speaker, he said: "It is a fascinating industry. The other thing which attracted me was the opportunity to build great brands.There is a lot of opportunity here for great innovation and for growth."
He said he spent his first few months going to Scotland to meet the fishermen who provided some of the fish for Young's and the factories in Grimsby which make the finished product. But seafood was in a tough market place and for that reason it was important it stayed vibrant."
"Tasting is believing. We are going to people in their homes across Europe and asking them to taste frozen versus fresh fish, and if they like the frozen product better, then we know we have got it right. I believe the taste challenge is the key thing."
Mark, who joined Young's from the household products industry, said the Findus Group employed 5,000 people in the UK, France and Scandinavia. It had a turnover of £2.1 billion and a profit last year of £28-million. He said he was proud of Young's "Fish For Life" policy which had recently won a major environmental award in Europe.
"Fish is very important to us, accounting for 50 per cent of our business. The remainder of production includes vegetables and ready meals (many of which are fish based).
He said there was still a perception that frozen food was cheap or inferior to the chilled product. Findus intended to change this and he believed the drive to cut out waste in food ( £12 billion wasted out of £80 billion spent on food in the UK alone) would go a long way to achieving that goal. "Frozen food is never wasted,"he maintained.
The clear health benefits of fish would also play another important role in driving growth.
There were two kinds of food buyers - those who loved food but didn't want to or didn't have the time to prepare and cook it themselves, and those who simply saw food as a kind of fuel to keep them going. Young's and Findus would develop products to meet both markets - and he believed frozen food was not a barrier to either.".
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