F Smales boosts jobs with new depot

Hull-based fish merchant F Smales & Son is creating six jobs as it sets up a new 5,574m2 depot to help distribute frozen fish.

The company, which supplies more than 3,000 UK fish and chip shops, is renting the warehouse from property company and regeneration specialist Langtree at City Park Trading Estate, Stoke-on-Trent.

The firm aims to use the facility as a hub to serve customers in the West Midlands, Staffordshire and the Black Country.

Three-year lease

The 75 year-old family-owned company, which grew out of a market stall in Kingston-upon-Hull, has signed a three-year lease on the distribution centre.

“The City Park Trading Estate is an ideal location for a cross-docking operation to service fish and chip shops in the West Midlands region,” said Robin Orr, financial director at F Smales & Son.

F Smales imports wild, frozen-at-sea Atlantic cod and haddock and supplies a range of individually quick frozen fish, including hake, lemon sole, plaice and dogfish.