Exmouth chippy turns to new £8.50 fish as soaring cod prices keep climbing

An Exmouth fish and chip shop has turned to an unfamiliar alternative to cod in a bid to keep the traditional family takeaway affordable as costs continue to rise.Krispies has added King Tilapia to its menu, with owner Kelly Barnes saying the white fish could offer customers a more affordable option without compromising on quality.A regular cod and chips at the shop currently costs £13.90, while a regular portion of King Tilapia and chips has been launched at £8.50.Kelly, who has owned Krispies with her husband for 25 years, said the move followed months of testing before the fish was finally offered to customers.She said: “Cod is still available, but as with everything else in the world, the price is rising and rising quickly.“We will always charge what we need to charge to make sure we can continue to offer that product, but obviously that means it becomes more premium.“What we want to do is make sure our customers have something that is still affordable.“Fish and chips is a staple family meal and I still want it to be. I want people to be able to enjoy that treat on a Friday or Saturday night, or any time of the week.”King Tilapia is a farmed white fish which Kelly described as being similar in appearance and texture to cod.She said: “It’s a beautiful, succulent, juicy white fish and it’s very chunky.“We get lots of people through the door offering us products, but if those products aren’t great, I’m not going to sell them just because they’re cheap.“Tilapia is a slightly cheaper white fish, but that’s not why we’re doing it. We want to make sure we can offer fish and chips for generations.”Krispies was first asked to test fry the fish at the beginning of June through its fish supplier, with Kelly saying she spent several months trying the product before committing to putting it on the menu.It officially launched on Monday following some customer trials the previous week.Kelly said the early reaction had been “fantastic”, with King Tilapia available with a scoop of chips, regular chips or as part of a box meal.She added: “People want to know that £8.50 is what they are paying. There’s no hidden cost.“At the moment we don’t offer the fish on its own, but if customers tell us they want that, we can look at it.”The introduction comes as Krispies, like businesses across the hospitality industry, faces rising costs ranging from ingredients to wages.Kelly said customers were also becoming increasingly careful about where they spent their money.She said: “For me, £20 is the new £10. If you’ve got £20 to spend, people are really wise about where they’re spending it and how they’re spending it.“For us, that means making sure the product is the best it can be – the batter, the oil, the chips and the fish.“We don’t think, ‘Things have gone up, so what can I find cheaper?’ I’ve been using the same oil for 20 years. My potato supplier knows what I want and we test the dry matter of the potatoes.“That’s what makes Krispies what it is. The training never stops.”Kelly said some costs which businesses had previously been able to absorb now had to be passed on to customers.She said the cost of a sack of potatoes, for example, had risen to around three times what Krispies once paid.“You just can’t absorb those costs any more,” she said.“Unfortunately, that means some of those costs have to be passed to the customer, as much as you don’t want to do it.“What we have done is look at the diversity of our menu and different offerings for customers, which is where King Tilapia comes in.”Despite the pressures facing the industry, Kelly said she remained optimistic about the future of the traditional chippy.She said: “Fish and chips has been around for 160 years and I’d like to think it will still be surviving.“It’s about the quality of the product, making sure you’re buying the best product and giving the best customer service.“We’re a family-run business serving families in Exmouth and I want to be able to continue doing that.“The way we do that is by being diverse in what we offer and, when you have to put your prices up, making sure there are different options on the menu.”And for customers unsure about swapping their usual cod for tilapia, Kelly had a simple message.“Don’t be afraid to try it just because it’s different,” she said.“I’m always a bit sceptical when new products are offered to me, but I think people will be really surprised.“It’s chunky, it’s white, it’s got a beautiful flavour and the texture is just like cod.”Kelly believes King Tilapia could become a much more familiar sight in British chip shops over the coming months.“I think it will be on a lot more menus within the next six months,” she said.