Turning the tide – from unemployment to smoking hot start-up business

For Paul Knight, being made redundant from his job has ended up taking him in an usual but rewarding direction.

The 22-year-old runs his own fish smoking business based at our Morelands Trading Estate in Gloucester. He moved into a standalone unit at the business centre in September 2012 and his business has been going from strength to strength. But he fell into his new trade by chance when the struggling economy led to him losing his job as a bricklayer, forcing him to look for work elsewhere.

He got a job smoking fish and discovered he had a talent for it. So, after four years working for someone else and building up his skills, he set up his own start-up business two years ago.

Paul says: “I took to it really well and this is definitely the area I’m going to stay in now. The building trade is very unsteady, whereas food is more stable as people will always need to eat.”

Start-up business is not easy

Paul starts his typical working day at around 5am, going to buy fresh fish from Birmingham Wholesale Market before heading back to his premises to put the fish into the kiln to smoke. He then visits markets across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Oxfordshire to sell his products, which include smoked mackerel, salmon and haddock as well as pates and fishcakes which he has made himself. He also sells more unusual products, which are not commonly seen on the supermarket shelves, including bloaters, buckling and herring, which has been smoked on the bone.

After a day of selling his produce on his stall, Paul heads back to his unit to finish preparing and smoking more fish.

He often works 16 or 17 hours a day and the early starts can be tough, particularly in bad weather.

But he says: “I am out meeting people every day. It’s a very social job and that’s one of the things I love about it. In the evenings I am on my own smoking the fish, but it is very rewarding to bring high quality smoked fish to my customers.”

Why our flexible business space is ideal

Paul chose the Morelands Trading Estate because he was looking for a ground floor unit that was separate from other businesses so he would not face restrictions about how much fish he could smoke on the premises and when. He says it was the helpful attitude of Business Centre Manager Jackie Houslop which made him choose Bizspace over alternative business parks.

“I visited three or four business parks and Jackie was the most helpful and explained everything really well, which was one of the deciding factors for picking the unit,” he says.

“It is also great as it is a self-contained unit on its own. There are a lot of other companies who might not like being next to a smoker, so this is ideal as I can smoke as much fish as I like with no complaints.”

Morelands Trading Estate in Bristol Road, Gloucester, is a 250,500 sq ft trading estate restored from the original Old England Match Factory. It includes more than 70 business units in a variety of sizes from 320 sq ft to 34,000 sq ft. The site provides flexible business accommodation for companies looking to rent studio space and office accommodation, as well as storage facilities. 

For more information, contact the Jackie Houslop on 01452 311 421.