Salmon-skin crisps maker among top 100 innovators
A co-founder of Sea Chips, a company that makes snacks from salmon skin, has been named in the 2019 Maserati 100, which celebrates innovation in British business.
Former chef Daniel Pawson, 25, who rejected an investment offer from the judges on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den investment show, is set to launch the product in supermarkets this year.
Italian car-maker Maserati and the Sunday Times collaborate on the list, which is dedicated to celebrating the positive impact entrepreneurs have on the economy and society as a whole.
Small factory
Millions of viewers saw Pawson turn down a £30,000 offer from multi-millionaire fashion retailer and investor Touker Suleyman in February because he thought the Dragon’s demand for 35% of the business was too much.
At the time the Dragons’ Den episode was recorded in early 2018 Pawson and Sea Chips co-founder Dominic Smith were still making the crisps by hand, but since then Grants Smokehouse owner Jonathan Brown has taken a one-third stake in the company, supplying investment and a ready supply of salmon skins – a resource previously discarded by Grants.
Sea Chips now has a small factory next to the Grants premises in Maryport in west Cumbria.
“We can make about 10,000 packets a day at the moment, and we’re pretty much going to be selling them straight away,” said Pawson.
The company is concentrating on increasing the number of its outlets in the UK and is also looking to export its product.
