Harbour Fish get out of Poly
Harbour Fish catches fish to order through their quota, selling to restaurants and wholesalers around the country and into Australia. Sustainability is a focus throughout their business, from catching and processing fish to delivering it to their customers, with packaging being a particular focus recently.
The push away from poly bins
Rachel Cooper at Harbour Fish says their customers had already voiced concerns about poly bins when Chilltainers approached them. “We totally understand why it’s not ideal to receive poly on site and also the industry’s recognition as a whole that poly bins are not great for the environment. But we weren’t aware of any viable alternative until Chilltainers approached us.”
THE SOLUTION
Transitioning to Chilltainers
Harbour Fish had tried other options, none of which had lasted. “With fish, we’re at another level of high maintenance – we’re about keeping product cold and delivering it as fast as possible.” So our Chilltainers had some work to do!
With the priority on delivering cold, premium product to restaurants and customers, Rachel says they have now managed to transition a large part of their business over to Chilltainers simply by identifying which customers were located within a defined radius from the factory. “We decided that deliveries made within 6 hours of the factory would transition to Chilltainers. If we prepared and packed the fish in the same way as if they were going in poly bins, we could deliver cold product in good condition. So it’s still refrigerated and packed with ice stacks; it’s just the container that’s different.”
Branding
When that product arrives at restaurants, the Harbour Fish branding is clear and prominent
on the Chilltainers. Rachel says that having their brand emblazoned across their Chilltainers for no extra cost has been a real positive. “We deal with a lot of transient staff in restaurants and it can be challenging to maintain relationships. Having our brand visible keeps us front of mind.”
Commitment to recycling
As part of their commitment to sustainability, Harbour Fish helps their customers recycle their Chilltainers. Every week, Harbour Fish collect pallets of flattened Chilltainers from restaurants and brings them back to its premises. Where possible, these are used again in their retail
stores in Dunedin and Queenstown. Customers, especially restaurants, appreciated that Chilltainers could be flattened and stacked for collection, freeing up space previously taken up by bulky poly bins.
THE VERDICT
“We should have been on to Chilltainers earlier and it was great they approached us. We should have been doing it since inception – why wouldn’t we?”
Source: Chilltainers
