The Good Fish Company was founded by Denis Good. His vision was to provide fresh quality fish on a daily basis to the people of Cork. Today, the business is one of the premier fish processors in Ireland and a Bord Bia Origin Green Gold member. Hannah Barnett spoke to the second generation, Managing Director Donagh Good, to learn more.
The Good Fish Company began in 1988, with Denis Good selling fish from a shop in Carrigaline, County Cork. Denis Good was a boat builder by trade, proud of his roots and the fishing culture of Ireland. By following his passion, he was able to guide the company’s development of a successful range of products that embody this rich fishing culture.
It is no exaggeration to say that The Good Fish Company’s new factory has been a long time coming.
“The original factory started in the garage of our house,” said Donagh Good, Managing Director. “But as the business grew rapidly, the company moved a few times. My father built a new factory in 2000, which we expanded several times. Finally in 2022, we decided to build and move to a new state-of-the-art facility which we completed in November 2024.”
The new facility will accelerate the development of the company, which has already
evolved from running shops and supplying restaurants, into the prepack retail segment. There have, of course, been bumps in the road. On St Patrick’s Day 2020, The Good Fish Company lost a serious volume of of its business overnight, thanks to lockdown and the forced shutdown of supermarket fish counters.
The pandemic was a scary time for the whole world, but The Good Fish Company
responded by doing more business with the smaller fishmongers around Ireland. At this time, the company pivoted to a valueadded seafood offering. Within two weeks, the company was hiring extra people and everyone from the office was down on the production floor. Prepack retail was an immediate success.
By the end of 2020, it became unavoidable that more space was needed. The Good Fish
Company began securing land and gaining planning permission for a new site. By March 2023, work had begun. “We broke ground St Patrick’s Day 2023,” Mr Good said. “St Patrick’s Day has proved a good milestone for us; a significant Irish date to measure events by.”
Under one roof
Unsurprisingly, the new 48,000 square foot factory is built to high specifications. With a significant amount already invested in the new facilities, the plan is to double turnover via exports over the next few years, while also growing the company’s market share in Ireland. The site is also far more sustainable, designed to run as efficiently as possible –certified with an impressive A3 energy rating.
“A3 is unheard of for process factories,” Mr Good added. “We’ve introduced all the sustainability metrics that we can to save electricity, reduce water and waste, plus improve recycling. The old factory didn’t have loading bays or the power to charge electric vehicles, meaning we had to use diesel. Now, we can have electric forklifts. Our old factory had become so full, we had to dismantle the freezers for more production space, meaning freezers were off-site. Now, they’re back, so
there’s no reason for any product to leave the factory until it’s 100 per cent complete.”
As a fully-integrated secondary processor, The Good Fish Company will fillet, portion, pack, freeze, smoke and bread for customers. Waste is almost non-existent; the company uses offcuts and trimmings for fish cakes and fish pies. Salmon makes up 55% of the domestic business and is also the biggest export.
The organic salmon from The Good Fish Company is a premium product, and very popular with European retailers. Irish fish has a fantastic reputation. However, two-thirds of all the seafood consumed in Ireland is imported, and two-thirds of all the seafood caught in Ireland is exported. Traditionally, The Good Fish Company would have focused on importing to supplying the domestic market. Now the company is adding exports to its portfolio to maximise the capacity of the new factory.
A family affair
The Good Fish Company has connections all over the world, including Scotland, Norway, France and Asia. The company has built a strong network of suppliers, with many
en is Good, Founder
relationships stretching back to Denis Good’s early dealings in the ‘80s. But these partnerships are more than just transactional.
“It’s not just the boats that we know,” said Mr Good, “It’s the co-ops, the farmers and the transport people in the middle. We have longterm friendships with all of them. Everyone asks me how my father is, he knows people on a first name basis. Food is a small industry, and fish is even smaller, so we do get to know those we work with.”
Although Denis Good is semi-retired, he still remains somewhat involved in the business,
contributing to the family atmosphere. He still walks the floor every morning to maintain a sense of continuity within the company.
“We think of our staff as family,” Mr Good said. “There are people here who have been with us for 20 years. Plus, I have an incredible team of senior managers who keep things running smoothly.
“It is also important to maintain our good-standing relations with suppliers: we can pick up the phone and get anything fixed quite easily. We didn’t get this big by selling poor products, we did it by selling quality.”
Catch of the day
Having already drawn up a five-year plan that included building the factory, The Good Fish Company is now focused on being the best it possibly can domestically, while continuing to expand abroad. According to Mr Good, taste profiles vary around the world, meaning the company now offers a bespoke service for its value-added products.
The new factory has a dedicated NPD room, enabling The Good Fish Company to bring
buyers in and create the product they want. This makes it much easier to tweak items, because sending samples long distance is not always practical. The team of suppliers helps with that as well. The focus is on the detail and the science of each product.
Mr Good remains focused on ushering change, while also maintaining heritage. It is plain that, although only 34, he is the ideal person for the job. After all, The Good Fish Company is in his blood.
“At six or seven, I was getting up at five AM to go in the van, and I loved it,” he concluded. “So, I have a lifetime of work in this industry already. My father did an incredible job getting us here, before I took over in September 2019. Now I want to put my own stamp on it.
“It’s not that I want to be the boss. I don’t think I’ve ever used that word; I don’t like cracking the whip. I like bringing people along on a journey with me. I love it when we get a new customer in the door, or even an existing customer that wants to try something new. Our philosophy is that we don’t want it all, we just want enough. We want to keep our staff in their jobs and the company going as smoothly as we can.”
