Fins Seafood was born when two mates from the Big State sought to combine years of industry experience and put it towards a more sustainable model. With an ethical vision and a passion to tell a catch’s story from ocean-to-plate, what started as a retail outlet in South Perth quickly evolved into an oyster delivery service in an old F-150, and then became a wholesale factory in Hamilton Hill. In recent times Fins owners Phil Clark and John Cordin have added city-wide deliveries to their repertoire once again, to come full circle in their efforts to service the demands of an ever-changing market.
At Fins Seafood, our aim is to champion the fisher, farmer and producers, allowing us to connect them to the consumer, whether they’re the head chef in a fine dining restaurant or a family at home grilling crayfish on the BBQ. By tagging our seafood with details of the fisher, their vessel, and region it came from, chefs and wholesalers can tell the backstory of the product, and the fishers, who’ve usually been long forgotten about by this stage, become an integral member of the operation once again.
In 2019 Fins won the Seafood Small Business Award in both Western Australia and nationwide, to prove that a socially conscious business model that cares as much for fishers, farmers and producers as it does for its consumers can not only survive, it can thrive.
Fins Seafood Factory began with John and Phil convincing each other plus prawn and scallop fishermen the Mcgowans (Mcboats) of the idea to take over an old sardine processing facility in Hamilton Hill. After some tin rattling to family and friends the boys had acquired a processing facility with chiller space, 120t of freezer storage, a high risk room, filleting area and a separate temperature controlled room.
Along with prawns and scallops were oysters from Smoky Bay in South Australia courtesy of Jeff and Colleen, delivered in the unreliable and old Ford F-150 with a refrigeration unit on the back – fuel efficiency and tight steering were not its strengths.
As the customer base grew so did demand for other products. The next major step for Fins was getting involved with Samson Seafood and selling fish caught from their exploratory deep-water trawl license. Packing and unloading this much fish changed the course for Fins as a food service business to a seafood wholesaler.
When Ben Pethick skipper of Bowithick and WA’s number one wet liner slid in to our DM’s on Instagram a business relationship quickly turned to a friendship.
Fins Seafood had distinguished itself as distributors of the finest quality ikijime (brain spiked) line caught fish and developed markets throughout the state and eastern seaboard.
By paying the fishermen a more than fair beach price and encouraging them to adopt some of Ben’s and industry best practices in fish handling more wet liners continue to join the Fins family.
“Since working with the boys at Fins I have change how I look at wet lining, it used to be something that I did in the off season of crayfishing, to keep the boat working now I see myself as a full time wet liner that fishes for crayfish part time. I have increased my interest in the West Coast Demersal Fishery 3 fold since teaming up with Fins. The boys opened my eyes to the world of Marketing and have helped me build my own brand. One of the thing that really sets the boys at Fins apart from other buyers is that when you leave the factory you don’t feel like you have been ripped off.”
Fins Family
We pride ourselves on going above and beyond for the Fins Seafood family. Whether that means calling a dozen interstate suppliers to find out where the best wild eel is caught, or requesting a scallop trawler keep their catch live so we can meet them on a Kalbarri beach and rush it to our chefs for their weekend service, the greater the challenge the greater the reward.
