Funky Fish

Young’s Seafood is expanding its Asda-exclusive Funky fish Kitchen brand with its first venture into the frozen fish category. 

The hitherto chilled-only fish range, launched in 2013 as a rival to ready-to-cook brands such as Icelandic Seachill’s The Saucy Fish Co and Tesco’s own-label Fish in a Flash, began rolling out seven new frozen products with Asda this week.

Young’s said the new range would see it employ the brand’s “fish with a twist” concept with freezer favourites, and give consumers “a simple and tasty way to include delicious fish and seafood in their diet”.

The brand’s new frozen lines include cod fish fingers in a smokey Cajun breadcrumb or a soy, honey and ginger panko crumb (rsp: £2/250g pack), plus salmon and pollock fishcakes in a light tempura batter, with or without ginger, chilli and honey (rsp: £2).

Three new natural fish lines have also been added, comprising basa fillets with Thai red curry sauce and lime leaf; cod fillets with sweet potato and Moroccan harissa sauce; and cod fillets with a wild garlic chilli and parsley sauce (rsp: £4 per pack of two).

The launch will be supported by a multichannel PR and digital ad campaign, with store promotions and sampling. 

The frozen fish category has struggled in recent years. Value sales fell 0.3% for the year to 2 March 2014, and by a further 1.4% to £753.7m for the year to 2 March 2015 on volume down 4% [Kantar Worldpanel].

“We’re excited to be bringing funky flavours and fun using natural fish to the freezer with Asda,” said Young’s marketing controller Marina Richardson. “The range has been successful in attracting new consumers to try different fish, so now is the natural time to take what we’ve learnt in chilled and expand the range into frozen.”