Profiles
Andrew Mallison
 Andrew Mallison is a Fish Technologist with U.K. retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S). He has had a life-long interest in fish and marine life, earning a degree in Fishery Science from Plymouth University. After graduating, Andrew worked in the Australian fish industry for a number of years and also completed three seasons in Alaska. He joined M&S in 1996, where he has been keen to bring new types of British fish to the stores and encourage customers to be more adventurous in their choice of fish. Marks & Spencer was named a 2006 Seafood Champion.
What is your favorite seafood?
It’s hard to choose a favourite but one of them would certainly be locally caught Cornish Dover sole grilled whole, or langoustines (Nephrops norvegicus) split and grilled with garlic butter, served in the wooden restaurant on the dock at Husavik, north Iceland.
What was your most memorable seafood experience? Best seafood meal you ever ate?
A combination of food and place – my favourite langoustines, this time Scottish, sautéed in chili oil in the galley of a fishing boat at 7:00 am in Peterhead Harbour, Scotland. The boat had just come in with the catch through a Force 9 gale, the skipper had been up all night but was still in good form, and the breakfast was cooked by famous U.K. food writer and journalist, Tamasin Day Lewis – it was a real privilege to be there.
What is or is becoming the most popular seafood item Marks & Spencer offers?
We have a fantastic range of shellfish that is doing really well – crab, lobster and prawns are very popular with our customers. We source crab and lobster from the Orkney Isles and the English coast, and prawns from Madagascar and Honduras, all chosen from suppliers who take real pride in the quality of their catch and their care for the environment.
How long have you been in the seafood business? And how did you initially get into it – what interested you?
About 25 years now. As a teenager I was fascinated by marine life, aquariums and the sea and looked for a career involving the fishing industry. While still at school I took evening courses in seashore ecology, then took a degree in Fishery Science. Nothing compares with the colour, variety and excitement of fish and fishing, the last hunted food. I get to travel to parts of the world few people ever see and am always amazed how fishing can support small communities in some of the most inhospitable places.
And how did you get interested in the issue of sustainable seafood? How did this happen? Was it always there, an epiphany moment, or a gradual change?
It was a gradual change. The demand for seafood has been steadily growing over the last few years but mostly concentrated on the same old favourites like cod and haddock. At the same time as these fisheries have come under more pressure, the politics of what is often a shared resource and the difficulties of measurement and enforcement have pushed many stocks below their sustainable levels. The economic safety valve of declining fish stocks becoming too expensive to catch and being left alone to recover doesn’t seem to work any more as technology interferes with the tipping point. Studying fisheries economics and the ”tragedy of the commons” shows the reasons for these declines but, unless you are a country with very restricted access to fisheries, like Iceland, most stocks will suffer as politicians try to balance the social and economic needs with the environment.
How has corporate interest in sustainability led Marks & Spencer to alter its business practices? Can you give specific examples, for instance has it led you to change the products/seafood you sell/buy?
Marks & Spencer have always tried to meet our customer’s expectations. They trust us to operate responsibly. We only sell our own label products and take responsibility for everything in our stores – whether it is a cod fillet or the prawns on a pizza, we don’t hide behind anyone else’s label.
As a business, we have also invested in the people and resources to understand each industry we work with – as far as I know, I am the only Fishery Scientist employed by a retailer in the U.K. Our culture made it natural that, as fish species became over-exploited, we chose not to sell them. In the late 1990s, we took North Sea cod off our shelves as we saw the fish landings fall and the average size of the fish reduce. Annual meetings with fishery scientists helped us understand population trends before the more accessible resources like the Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish Guide were available.
This process is now better defined and more developed, with a joined up policy of fish to sell, fish not to sell and, most importantly, what we do about those populations that need help to recover.
Have your seafood suppliers worked with you on sourcing sustainable seafood for your stores?
Yes, and we could not do it without them. We make a point of involving our suppliers and the fishermen wherever we can, inviting fishermen to our stores to see what we do and to talk about how we can improve quality and protect the fish stocks.
How does Marks & Spencer determine what products to offer or what seafood to buy?
First and foremost is quality – the fish must meet our customer’s standards for eating and, of course, safety. If we believe we can obtain the right quality and have a commercial opportunity, we will then assess sustainability before putting anything on our shelves.
Does the company inform customers about sustainable seafood? How are they responding?
Sustainability is a complicated subject and not easy to explain in a few words. Our policies and standards have been assessed by independent groups like Greenpeace and the Marine Conservation Society, both deciding we were the best retailer in the U.K. With their agreement, we have put this on our labels and in-store displays, believing that these types of endorsement get the message across in a simple form. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) logo is becoming better understood by our customers, and we are changing our packaging to show this logo for products from certified fisheries such as wild Alaskan salmon. We also used our approach to seafood sourcing as a key message in our wider Look Behind the Label campaign, launched in January 2006 to tell our customers about our commitment to operate responsibly.
In January 2007, M&S Chief Executive Stuart Rose announced our $400m, 5-year Plan A which covers our impact on the environment and our communities. Part of this is a commitment to source all fish from MSC (or equivalent) certified fisheries by 2012, sell more organic farmed fish and reduce the amount of seafood sent by airfreight. All these have been widely publicized and are available to download from our website.
Our market research shows that customers are aware of the issues, are concerned about over-fishing and what retailers are doing about it and want us to take a lead in dealing with the issue.
What do you find the most exciting/promising about the current seafood marketplace?
Fish is good for you and can be really easy and quick to cook once you know how! Customers are enjoying more seafood every year and we are making it easier to get great quality, variety and, of course, responsibly sourced seafood in convenient and easy to cook products. Our latest range of Cook! products are restaurant quality seafood that can be prepared at home with simple cooking instructions and are totally additive free. I’m really excited about getting more customers to become confident about cooking and enjoying fish.
And what is the most challenging?
Our market covers a wide range of customer, from those on a budget with a family to feed and those who can afford a little more. Seafood is not a cheap food, particularly if the quality and environmental impact meet our standards; it must compete for the shopper’s budget. Our challenge is to make fish affordable where we can but we also need to explain to customers that responsible sourcing sometimes means that we have had to pay more for it. It’s all about allowing customers to make informed choices and realizing you get what you pay for.
Another challenge would be persuading customers to try something different. There are some great eating fish around, some have weird names or an image problem but unless we broaden our menu’s, the old favourites will become increasingly scarce and more expensive.
How would you suggest Seafood Choices Alliance help in this regard, if at all?
The Seafood Choices Alliance has a unique opportunity to help inform customers so the right choices can be made. You can highlight examples of where industry is doing the right thing and let conscientious customers know where to shop. Businesses that are trying to do the right thing need support and will be putting money back into a sustainable future. The Alliance is also ideally placed to bring together the whole value chain (retailers, processors and fishermen) and policy makers to jointly develop solutions. Promoting alternative fish and how to cook them would also be a real help.
What does being a Seafood Champion mean to M&S?
It was a real privilege to be honoured by the Seafood Choices Alliance – a lot of work by a lot of people over a lot of years has gone in to reaching this point. We are very proud that an independent and respected group thinks we are doing the right thing. We hope our customers will realize we have won this award through going the extra mile and will choose M&S as the place to buy seafood for not only quality but also responsible sourcing and investment in the future.
Posted August 22, 2007
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