Plymouth’s Kingfisher Fish and Chips has set a new world record. It has more MSC certified sustainable choices on its menu than any other fish and chip shop or restaurant in the world.
Run by Craig Maw, his partner Nikki and their 18 strong team, Kingfisher Fish and Chips has always had sustainable fish sourcing at the front of all of their minds.
“We are very proud to offer our customers MSC certified sustainable seafood,” Craig told MSC. “Since purchasing Kingfisher, sustainable fish sourcing and providing customer confidence in all things was paramount. I could see where things were going in our industry regarding fish sourcing and we didn’t want to sit back and wait for things to happen. We became very proactive in what we did, we wanted to become industry leaders a shining light in responsible sourcing.”
Breaking the record
Kingfisher has already won multiple awards and launched its summer menu with 12 Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified species on the menu, snatching the title from previous winner (and MSC Certified Best Restaurant Menu winners) Olley’s Fish Experience in London’s Herne Hill which offers 8 species. The impressive arrange of sustainable seafood includes cod and haddock from the Arctic Sea, Jersey lobster, prawns, pollock, salmon and even kippers. *
A pioneering family-run chippy
19 years ago Yorkshireman Craig Maw moved to Plymouth from Sheffield, planning to establish a small group of six fish and chip restaurants. After selling off five of them, Craig bought Kingfisher and hasn’t looked back since.
“We wanted to run a better business, and give our customers confidence in all things fish and chips. Quality in all things was our focus. MSC certification fits in with the quality image and ethos we are trying to provide. Moving forward, I hope to encourage other businesses to become certified ensuring future generations have the same choices as today.”
“MSC certification is recognised in more and more places, the ecolabel is in the forefront for sustainable fish certification and consumer confidence. This is why we openly endorse MSC certification and the ecolabel. As a shop it gives us great satisfaction, and this ripples from within. Our team know how hard we work to source sustainably, and our customers appreciate it too.”
The Marine Stewardship Council
The MSC is the world's leading certification and ecolabelling programme for sustainable seafood, working with partners to transform the world's seafood markets and promote sustainable fishing practices. It involves fisheries from all the world’s oceans and supply chain partners across the globe. Currently, there are over 260 MSC certified fisheries globally catching close to nine million metric tonnes of seafood between them – close to 10% of the total wild capture seafood catch.