Deira Bay Shellfish The resort town of Grantholme is well known as a traditional destination for day trippers, bed and breakfast accommodation for lower income visitors from further inland, caravan sites and old-fashioned family 'bucket and spade' holidaymakers who enjoy the sandy beaches of Deira Bay, the fish and chip shops, donkey rides and ice cream parlours. What is less well known is that Grantholme is the shellfish capital of the UK, and indeed Europe. Thanks to a fortuitous combination of tide, temperature, nutrients and shelter Deira Bay has proved to be an ideal location for shellfish production. Upwards of 7 million of lobsters, crabs and whelks are landed annually by thriving landing and distribution companies who contribute substantially to the harbour's revenue and provide employment for local people. Grantholme's landing operation is in a bustling part of the harbour with limited room for ex- pansion and in need of a large cold store facility. Over 85 per cent of the catch is exported to established customers in France and Spain who collect the catch in trucks which take the produce live out of the country. Interestingly, the fact that this shellfish is of UK origin is not mentioned to the end consumers. The prospect of the UK leaving the European Union could severely impact this established trading relationship, with the spectre of increased tariffs and physical checks at the ports. Although the UK's fishermen were solidly behind the Leave campaign, believing somewhat naively that it would free them from the Common Fisheries Policy and restore sole control of Britain's waters, the landing companies in Grantholme were less convinced. As a result, their industry association supported by the local council decided to commission a study into ways of mitigating this risk. They were able to secure EU funding for the study and recruited a team of consultants to undertake this work. The team's objectives were to: understand the drivers of value within the industry and the extent to which these are understood and actionable within the Deira Bay region; explore the global shellfish industry and identify best practice that could be used by Deira Bay to identify alternative markets outside the EU and the means of accessing them; suggest what business changes might be needed for the Grantholme companies to pro- gress from their existing business models. The team engaged with a comprehensive range of individuals, businesses and institutions in their research. They conducted consumer research via a national survey and through fo- cus groups. They spoke to restaurants and leading suppliers to the retail trade, visited major wholesale markets in London and Madrid and met with seafood companies in North America and the Far East. They also attended crab and lobster festivals to examine how other producer communities were able to exploit their expertise as a tourism opportunity. The consultants' overall findings suggested to them very strongly that the Grantholme-based landing companies through their traditional 'catch and sell' approach were missing out on a significant opportunity for adding value and keeping it in the Deira Bay region. Though suc- cessful in their own right they could do even better if they were prepared to embrace change. Theirs is a luxury product capable of being sold at a premium in a market which is still growing and where demand exceeds supply. Specific recommendations were to: establish activities and practices to support a quality-based industry, investing in welfare man- agement, sustainability, grading, holding and logistics as a foundation for a stronger business; scope and develop plans with the Grantholme fishermen to derive higher returns from the catch and enter new markets by increasing their commercial capability; develop a business to business branding strategy and marketing materials to enable Deira Bay to compete on a national and international scale, with the fishery positioned as a leading partner so that a premium price may be enjoyed; identify and seek to enter one or two specific international markets outside the EU; and assess a range of options which would raise the industry's profile in the UK. These recommendations were contained in a Stage 2 proposal that itemised a series of steps that could be taken and offered a means of delivering them. However, the proposals were argu- ably too radical and challenging for the companies to contemplate with ease. They may have been seen as critical, even patronising, to businesses that were enjoying continued success. Consequently, although the work had produced a wealth of valuable information and inter- national best practice and some clear indications as to how the Grantholme companies could exploit the opportunities proposed, the challenge of changing from a production-oriented to a marketing-oriented approach was simply too big a step to be taken for the clients.