Northern Irish Ewing Seafoods goes high tech for growth in Britain

Ewing's Seafoods, the leading Northern Irish supplier of fresh fish and seafood to many top restaurants and hotels, has introduced state-of-the-art technology as it seeks to grow business in Britain and the Republic of Ireland by increasing its productivity and competitiveness.

The company, which has a reputation for producing award-winning smoked fish, especially salmon, from its own kiln in Belfast and using its own curing recipe, has developed and installed a bespoke and comprehensive factory and office management system.

This substantial investment has enhanced traceability and made it easier to retain British Retail Consortium Grade A accreditation demanded in particular by major retailers.

The company has supplied smoked salmon to Selfridges in London and negotiations with another retail leader are currently at an advanced stage.

A UK Great Taste Award three-star winner, Ewing Seafoods, which employs 17 people, is now operating the sophisticated management information system (MIS) across the business including tele-sales, sales order processing, product picking/van touting, stock control, recipe management, costing, price management and invoicing. The system also ensures total product traceability.

The MIS system is assisting the business to improve its productivity and to enable it to exploit opportunities for products in markets outside Northern Ireland including Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

Crawford Ewing, commercial director of family owned Ewing Seafoods, which has been supplying fresh fish and seafood from a base on the Shankill Road in west Belfast for over a century, says: "The new MIS system gives us greater control of all our operations especially in terms of returns and margins on products.

"We can also provide essential management data to our customers to enable them to enhance their management operations. We now have total control in areas such as safety and traceability, important considerations today.

"In addition the system helped us to retain our crucially important BRC Grade A accreditation easier than would have been the case without it. It's a very exacting procedure that demands the most efficient safety systems in particular for companies wishing to win business with retail multiples," adds Mr Ewing.