Customer Spotlight: Fish My Chips
Updated: 23 February, 2024
After investing all of his savings in a food truck, only to be locked down six weeks later, Mahmut's business has been through some challenges. But today, business is thriving thanks to collaborations with big-name events.
Taking the store out the door...
Owner of Fish My Chips, Mahmut, has been a loyal JJ customer since his family opened their chain of fish and chip shops, Salisbury's Fish and Chips, in South London.
During his time working for his family business, the street food craze began to take off, and Mahmut decided he wanted a share of that pie! He purchased his first van to sell fish and chips from, adding another arm to his family business, and in the space of a year, Mahmut realised the van was taking up more and more of his time.
Mahmut, owner of Fish My Chips, pictured above.
Making the decision to separate the fish and chips van from his family business, Mahmut took the leap to go solo and has never looked back. Quickly realising the concept had legs after receiving an influx of bookings, Mahmut invested in a more modern van to cater for his customers' needs, with a funky, bright pink design
But, just six weeks later, Covid hit. Mahmut had spent all of his savings upgrading his business due to all the work he had coming in, all for it to stop suddenly. He had a brand-new van and absolutely no bookings.
Things started to pick up again...
"Luckily, we were approached by a company putting together a handful of concerts during lockdown which we were asked to cater for, and things began to snowball from there. I managed to get my business name back out there and things started to pick up again.
We began working with Alexandra Palace to cater at their events, concerts and exhibitions, and we now cater weekly at Wycombe Wanderers football club home matches, as well as weddings, private functions, corporate events and staff appreciation days."
Alongside this, you can find Fish My Chips in the city of London every week around the Liverpool Street area, as well as every Thursday in Here East, Stratford; before heading to Standon on Thursday evenings to pitch up outside The Bell pub!
Catering for different audiences
When the festival season starts, Mahmut likes to take his funky van to family friendly festivals including the likes of Soul Town Festival, Ongar Town Festival, 51st State, Here & Now Festival, Beckenham Flower Show and Battersea Fireworks.
"I'll admit, I turned Glastonbury down as it's not the demographic we look for client wise. We know fish and chips doesn't work in that environment, which is why we're developing a menu to do loaded dirty fries for those kinds of events."
"But I never set out to be a traditional fish and chips van, I always strive to be more than that. Which is why we will always adapt our menu to the customers' needs. We recently catered for Smurfit Kappa who requested smashed burgers and fries. So, we bought our ingredients from JJ to make homemade smashed burgers."
How JJ has helped Fish My Chips to thrive
As a small business, Mahmut told us one of the main reasons he uses JJ Foodservice is that he can buy his stock as and when he needs it.
"There's limited storage in my food truck, so the fact I can place my order on the app, with no minimum order, and then head over to a branch and collect it works well for me."
"The quality of JJ products are always consistent, and the prices are always competitive. I regularly purchase everything from fries, brioche buns and chicken strips, to soft drinks, mince meat, chicken skewers and packaging."
"We used JJ back in the family fish and chip shop when JJ were just starting out and growing, so using a business that is a trusted company and well-known within the wholesale industry made sense to me."
Always have a value option on your menu
With the increasing prices of not just food, but also wholesale gas and staffing costs, there's only so much small businesses can carry, Mahmut tells us.
"For example, the prices of fish fluctuate on a weekly basis, and I don't always pass that cost onto my customers. But then, as a small independent business I can't cover these increasing costs myself."
"I could give my customers smaller portions or swap to substandard products to cut costs, but to me, quality is paramount. People will pay as long as you have a good offering and it's value for money - if you have good quality products, customers will pay for that."
Mahmut's advice for other caterers in the same position is to always have an option on your menu that represents value. "For me, it's something like sausage and chips - you're still giving customers a main meal at a much more affordable price."
He continues to say, "Don't defer away from your signature dish, or downgrade it in any way. Simply add something to your menus that's more cost-effective for the customer and have them make the decision about whether they want to spend less - don't sell yourself short!"
Head over to @fish.my.chips on Instagram to follow Mahmut's journey!
Discover more in our brand new Festival Food Guide.