SHOP WATCH The Big Blue Fish Bar, Telford, Shropshire

Third time lucky

Zo Savva, owner of The Big Blue Fish Bar in Telford’s Leegomery Shopping Centre, has fond memories of his younger years growing up in his family’s fish and chip shops. “I can remember being a young lad and my dad pulling out fresh fillets as big as me from a box full of ice. And my Uncle’s shop had a range which didn’t have any thermostats on; just a wheel for turning the gas on and off and we would light it with a candle. I do miss those days.”
When you hear what Zo has been through since he bought the takeaway in 1995 you can understand why he harks back to those golden years. An unusual set of circumstances left him wondering on more than one occasion whether he would in fact have a business at all. “Five years after we opened, my brother Simon and I refurbished the shop, but then about five and half years after that we found ourselves back there going through it all over again after a fire in the neighbouring convenience store wrecked all our hard work.” Access to the shop was denied for six weeks, which meant it was six long months before the shop was ready to open again.
Shortly afterwards, Zo was delivered a second blow when his landlord, the council, informed him they would be selling the parade of shops and that the chippy would be relocated to the site adjacent, which was earmarked for redevelopment. “After a few years, the recession hit and the developers pulled out, leaving it in limbo,” explains Zo. Fortunately, with a new Conservative council last year, the redevelopment was put back at the top of the agenda and The Big Blue Fish Bar finally moved into its new site in January this year.
At approximately 20,000 sqft, the new shop is roughly two and half times the size of the previous one and has parking outside, which is a huge bonus. “The old shop did have parking but it was round the side, and even if people have to walk just 30 feet it makes a difference, so it’s a much better position here.”
With this being Zo’s third refurbishment in 11 years and the council agreeing to foot some of the relocation costs, Zo decided he wasn’t going to hold back on the fit out, which explains many of the extravagant features of this shop. The 20ft long, tonne and a half granite counter, the radio controlled LED strip lighting and an air input system that changes the air 12 times an hour – to mention just a few.
Zo’s pride and joy, however, is his five pan Florigo (www.fryingsolutions.co.uk) island range, which when it’s going full pelt can fry about six bags of potatoes an hour – more if you really push it, says Zo. Although he is pleased with the range now, it involved a complete change of mindset for Zo who has always stuck to the traditional way of frying. “I’ve always fried on a traditional range and it took a lot of convincing and a lot of research for me to swap.” And when Zo says a lot, he means it, as he visited between 30 and 40 shops including Merchants Fish Bar in Bewdley and The Chip Inn in Kidderminster
“It took a while to get used to the pans bcause it involved moving to basket frying, which was a totally new concept for me, but now that I’ve got into the swing of things I’m getting a much more consistent product than with my old range.”
Fitted with Florigo’s Filterlogic system, the range is not only saving the shop time, as the pans can be filtered while they are being used rather than at the start or end of the day, but also oil – about 30-40%.
Another luxury item is the shop’s digital signage system from Dorset-based company Quad Vision (www.quadvision.co.uk). Comprising four display screens – two 40 inch and two 32 inch – and one control screen, Zo can display multiple images, web pages, video footage and content such as flash, on any screen in any space. The content can be programmed to repeat or it can be set to automatically change at a time in the day, say at 12pm for a lunchtime menu special.
“We were looking to put a feature in the shop and were thinking about having a picture on an entire wall as we had seen those in other shops, but although they do look great, I thought that after a few months it might get a bit boring and customers would get used to seeing it. This, however, is different everytime a customer comes in as we might be showing the news, football or a special promotion that we’re running.”
And it’s looking as if Zo may have found a way for the £7,500 system to pay for itself as he’s exploring the possibility of showing adverts. “I’ve already got one local company that wants to advertise his business on it.”
Not all the shop’s improvements have come in the form of nifty gadgets; Zo has made a number of smaller and much less costly changes, which are seeing an equally positive effect on business. “We’ve switched over to using trays for the chips rather than just wrapping them in order to improve our portion control and we’re easily saving 10 to 15% in potatoes now.” With Zo concerned that prices could hit £12 a bag before too long, that’s a potentially significant saving.
The new location has also brought about a new menu with oven baked cod now available. The takeaway is selling up to 20 pieces a week, so it seems like a popular move, as does the switch to chicken nuggets and burgers made from 100% chicken breast meat, with sales doubling. Zo has also re-priced his doner and chicken kebabs, selling them both at the same price point and again sales have soared. Unfortunately switching to a cheaper sausage did not have the same effect. “I went on a bit of an economy drive with all my products and suppliers just to try and get things slightly cheaper, but I had to bin the sausages and go back to my original supplier. I hold my hands up to that one.”
Zo has managed to find plenty of other ways to streamline his business and make life easier, like the coin counter he recently bought. “It’s like the ones banks use and it saves me about two to three hours a week counting money.”
He’s also recently introduced Barclays Connect (www.barclays.co.uk) contactless technology to make fast and secure payments for items of £15 or less. Rather than requiring customers to insert their card into a chip and PIN machine, they simply hold it next to the card reader which means secure payment is made in less than a second.
“We’ve only had a couple of sales so far, but as all the major credit card companies move over to it, I think more and more people will use it in the future,” says Zo. Whether this payment method takes off or not, paying by plastic certainly seems the way forward for this takeaway with credit and debit card sales having doubled since card sales were introduced. “I know we pay a little bit more for these transactions, but customers like the option and I can’t help thinking that there’s about £300 a week we wouldn’t normally take if we didn’t offer that option. It’s part of the future.”  
It’s this focus on the future, and the fact that the takeaway is so adaptable and geared up for change, that will ensure its continued success. From the small aspects, such as having the the capacity to add pizzas and southern fried chicken to the menu in future, to bigger things like having an EPOS system already in place so as to accommodate a delivery service and online ordering, there’s almost nothing this shop can’t do.
“Not everything happens over night and we’ve taken a bit of a gamble and spent a bit more than we should have, but I think even in ten years time this shop will still look good and be current,” concludes Zo.