Who we are

Situated so close to the banks of the River Tweed and North sea, The Berwick Shellfish Co. is practically afloat. With the most breathtaking, unspoilt views of the rugged Northumbrian coastline from our office window, it's surprising we get any work done at all. What drives us is the same passion that spawned our family business in 1969. We think you deserve the best and that's motivation for us to do what we do and have only ever done, deliver the freshest, finest local produce. Britain has an enviable larder, Seafood is something we do incredibly well and we, the folks at The Berwick Shellfish Co. are on a mission to bring this to you.

 Clean, cold filtered seawater is pumped through sandbanks directly from the source into our holding facility and keeps our freshly landed catch of crabs and lobsters, stress-free and relaxed in a familiar habitat to their own (no sad, dirty tanks for our bad boys and girls). They are checked continually for Quality and freshness.

Our catch is carefully transported via our reliable friends at *FEDEX to their final destination and ultimately the plates of the appreciative diner, in the U.K. or Europe.

We pride ourselves on welfare and respect the life of every creature we come into contact with. As Berwick- upon- Tweed was fought over by the Scotts and English 13 times, we can't tell you if your lobster comes kilted or if your crab remembers 1966, as our local boats fish both sides of the border, but what we can guarantee is the unparalleled freshness and quality of our product.

 

 

Where we're based

The North Sea is the best place to get the finest shellfish in the UK, bringing the best of Scottish and English seafood; shop online for fresh shellfish, from lobsters to mussels, cockles to king prawns, for next day delivery nationwide.

Our facilities

• Vivier holding facility up to 25,000kg
• EEC approved cooking plant 500kg per hour
• Live / cooking / dispatch all done on site

 

 

 

 

Wholesale

We provide wholesale service to trade and distributors throughout Europe. Lobsters, crabs, and velvet crab are landed on a daily basis from a large number of small daily catch boats to ensure quality is kept to the highest standard possible. We cook lobster and brown crab in our purpose built cooking and processing plant, which has an estimated capacity of 500 kg of shellfish per hour. Our bespoke shellfish tanks keep our lobsters in a dark, stress-free environment before dispatch. Upon arrival at our shoreside facility, the Shellfish are checked by hand to ensure that they are of suitable quality, size and disease free before being placed into the Vivier storage units for distribution throughout Europe.

Retail

Lobsters are our speciality. Dressed, whole, cooked, lobster bisque, homemade pâté, we've got something to appease the seafood snob in you!

We also provide top quality and super fresh crab, Lindisfarne oysters, langoustines, kippers, cod, smoked haddock, crayfish tails, cocktail crab claws and more. We are happy to make up a seafood buffet selection. Wow, your guests with something we toiled to pick by hand lovingly - we do the hard work, so you don't have to. But please, remember to give us a little bit of credit as we want to be around for another 50 years.

A trendy option for weddings is our seafood wedding cake, which consists of a 3 tier ice sculpture filled with lobster, crevettes, prawns, smoked salmon and other seafood of your choice. We guarantee your product to arrive fast and fresh.

We knew something was missing from our repertoire...seafood pairs well with, em wine of course! So, saving you the bother of sourcing the perfect accompaniment, we've done the hard work -well we called the expert suppliers at, Inverarity Morton and have recently added a couple of very nice wines to go with your seafood supper. 

'Grand Crevette' is a Sauvignon Blanc from the French Languedoc and is described by one Vivino reviewer as a "fruity white, that fits nicely with seafood" - ooh la la we say! An easy drinkable wine priced at £7.50

'Blanc-Pescador' is a cheeky sparkling wine from Spain -north of Barcelona to be precise. Going some way to satisfying our current obsession with fizz, this Cava producing family, Castillo Perelada (one of the biggest in Spain) has produced a lightly sparkling offering. Described by a Vivino reviewer as "smelling like a champagne, but with a delicate fizz" we think this will bring some sparkle back into your life. £7.50

History timeline

1969: Company created by George and Phyllis Flannigan beginning in Low Greens Berwick
1970: Relocated to Spittal, taking over Boston’s old smokehouses, employing over 30 staff processing langoustines, wild salmon, crabs and lobsters, also supplying a large UK Network.
1972: Berwick Shellfish (Grimsby) Ltd formed
1974: Opened lobster tanks at Lower Burnmouth. 1974 was also the first year for exporting live lobsters. Markets included Norway, Holland and France.
1977: Exports increased to include Belgium and Italy.
1980: The company relocated to Berwick Quayside, building large lobster tanks and allowing growth in the live shellfish side of the business.
1983: First Vivier truck built. Carrying capacity of 1.5 tonne of live shellfish in seawater tanks using a continuous supply of chilled air to aerate the water
1985: Until now velvet crab was a throwback product here on the East coast. Berwick Shellfish created and sourced a market in Spain, allowing a new product to land, thus allowing the fishermen increased value to their catch.
1986: Second Vivier truck built, with a capacity of 6 tonnes of products.
1990: Company relocated to Dock Road in Berwick, building largest holding tanks on the East Coast of the UK, with a holding capacity of 25,000 Kilos.
1993: Second Vivier lorry was added to the fleet.
1995: Exports expanded to include Spain and Portugal by road.
2003: Two new articulated lorries were added, transporting live shellfish from Scrabster and the Isle of Lewis directly to Barcelona and Vigo. Weekly volume around 23 tons of live shellfish and 5 to 6 tonnes of cooked.
2011: Complete new cooking facility built within Dock Road site, giving a processing capacity of 500 kilos of shellfish (mainly brown crab) per hour.
2014: Factory seafood shop opened to handle face to face and online sales. Which we are striving to grow.  We offer over 30 different products, including luxury gift hampers and platters right down to Catherine's homemade fishcakes, but you need to be quick to catch them as they are a guaranteed sell out!

2015: Berwick Shellfish Company continues to grow in the retail sector by adding two retail crab Shack trailers supplying markets and fetes around the North East & Scottish Borders.