Star Feast Foods has opened a new 3,000 sq ft facility near Canary Wharf, London that will provide its growing range of products to customers across London, and stands to deliver up to £3m in new sales over the next 12 months.
The business – which has a site in Wolverhampton – has installed state-of-the-art freezer/chilling technology, and has invested in two delivery vans and a fully-branded Tuk-Tuk sourced from India.
Bosses at Star Feast – which was created by UK seafood supplier Star Agro Marine Food last year in order to target restaurants – have already created four new jobs as part of the expansion plan with the London venture.
Mohammed Khan, business development manager at Star Feast, told Wolverhampton-based news outlet Express & Star: “This is a very exciting move for the business, and reflects a growing appetite from across the UK for our own sustainable shrimp, as well as other seafood and poultry lines.
“We have always supplied into UK supermarkets and some restaurants in the south east of England, but felt the time was right to create a dedicated base locally that could meet growing demand and provide a trade counter offer.”
He added: “The £200,000 investment gives us a prime location in London and enough space to stock as many products as our HQ in the West Midlands. The benefit being we can now supply our customers in a few hours whilst offering the general public the chance to buy great tasting shrimp and a wide range of other seafood and poultry over the counter in small quantities.”
The company has already secured a string of new contracts with high street retailers and wholesalers for the venture, along with a number of Asian restaurants.
There are also plans in place for the firm to open a third base in the South West, with the possibility of acquiring a complementary business with an already established footprint in the region.
Managing director Steve Money, added: “Moving into London and South East market is a natural stage in our development and the next step in us achieving £15m sales by the end of 2018.
“We’ve also got some exciting plans to increase our range to more than 50 different seafood, poultry and dried goods products.”
