Aldi’s sales of seabass have increased ten-fold in the two weeks since celebrity chef Phil Vickery has promoted it. The chef has endorsed the fish in the discounter’s television advertisements and on podcasts on Aldi’s website in which he demonstrates how to cook it. Aldi said that it had predicted the spike in demand and had enough stocks to satisfy its customers who had snapped up 100,000 lines in two weeks, accounting for some 46% of the seabass market.

“The Vickery advertisements brought an incredible increase in sales, albeit from a small base,” said Tony Baines, Aldi managing director of buying. Retailers and suppliers have traditionally struggled to produce strong sales volumes at fish counters despite various initiatives in recent years and the popularity of the fish in the restaurant trade.