The Principle Cafe creates profit from off-cuts

The Principle Cafe, a family-run fish and chip takeaway in Galston, near Kilmarnock, has turned to Ceres Fishcake Mix to reduce food waste and increase profits.

Claire and Eddie Thomson have been running The Principle Cafe with their two children, Abi and Josh, for three years. Looking for ways to improve the business, Claire and her son attended the KFE Frying School of Excellence last year, where they were shown how to make fishcakes with leftover trimmings.

“Before introducing fishcakes last July, any small or leftover fish pieces we had, I would throw away,” says Claire. “After seeing how easy homemade fishcakes were to make, I thought, no, I’m not going to waste anything anymore. There’s profit there to be made, so I took it on board.”

Now, any haddock trimmings are used in plain fishcakes or smoked haddock, leek and cheese varieties. And using Ceres Fishcake Mix has made the process quick and simple, as Claire explains: “Ceres Fishcake Mix is absolutely brilliant. You just add water and your fish trimmings, there’s no mashing or boiling potatoes, which saves time, and you get a really great tasting product.”

High standards

The mix allows Claire to maintain the shop’s high standards while keeping preparation manageable for a small team. All fishcakes are made once a month when enough trimmings have been collected, before being shaped, weighed for consistency and frozen. When ordered, staff simply take them from the freezer, breadcrumb them and cook them straight from frozen.

Selling at £4.40 for plain and £4.80 for smoked haddock, the fishcakes – being almost pure profit – have become a valuable addition to the menu. And while many customers order them as a meal with chips, others add them on to their main orders, boosting overall sales. Claire comments: “With the price of fish going up, it’s important to have additional items on the menu. Fish is the most popular, and add-ons like sides or fishcakes bring profits up without overcomplicating the menu.”

The family’s commitment to quality extends across their business as they invest in training, source local ingredients and prepare many of their sides themselves, from tartare sauce to mushy peas. “Rather than add lots of new items to the menu, we try to make use of what we have,” Claire explains. “Like with the fish trimmings, any leftover mushy peas, we batter and turn into pea fritters. It’s using ingredients we've already got, and turning them into something we can sell.”

Increased profitability

By using Ceres Fishcake Mix, The Principle Cafe has added variety and increased profitability with little additional outlay. Claire concludes: “It’s a brilliant addition. We try and keep our wage bill down by doing as much as we can ourselves, so fishcakes are another great homemade item and we’re not wasting anything. Ceres Fishcake Mix is perfect for our small, family-run shop.”