Delivering fresh fish to your door

The Level 5 lockdown restrictions have been a huge challenge for many companies, which have needed to change the way they operate.

Star Seafoods, a Kerry-based company which employs 40 people and has been in business since 1974, said the first lockdown was a huge shock.

Their business was 95 per cent food service which was shut down overnight, along with most of the fish markets in Munster.

With their fleet of vans laying idle and no work for the majority of employees, they saw an opportunity to grow their home delivery network through their website doing deliveries in Cork city.

Star Seafoods have an online fish shop offering the freshness of a local market with the convenience of home delivery. They use their refrigerated vehicles to deliver both day and evening at a time chosen by the customer.

The company has now expanded their home delivery service to 12 counties throughout Ireland including Dublin, Limerick and Galway, after the service was successful in Cork city.

They don’t charge delivery fees and the minimum order is only €10.

There were many additional challenges, but a company spokesperson said they were enjoyable. “We expect the food service side of our business to bounce back strongly in the summer of 2021, though we will keep up the home delivery service and continue to grow it.

“Lockdown showed us how reliant we were on the food service side of things. Thankfully, we were able to quickly adapt to the new trading environment and grow our online business. This coming year we hope to continue the expansion of our home delivery service.”