Patrick Martinez credits moving to Liverpool with changing his life.
Originally from Madrid, the 46-year-old moved from Manchester to Merseyside in 2017 for a job at Zara. However, in his words, "it didn't really work out" for him at the fashion store.
The next year, Patrick started his own business called The Tinned Fish Market, based in the Baltic Triangle's Red Brick Market. Patrick's aim was to bring luxury versions of the cupboard staple to the UK.
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Now, the business stocks 250 different products from tinned fish producers across the globe. It offers online subscriptions and gift boxes as well as selling from locations in London, including fashionable Borough Market.
Patrick told the ECHO about his start in Liverpool and how the business has grown in the past five years.
He said: "When I lost my job was when I really decided to do something else. It was something I had tried to do for a while but I never really had the confidence to do it, I guess. I was in Liverpool and I always wanted to have my own business. I remember one day, I was walking in the Baltic Triangle and I saw the unit at the Red Brick Market and I thought 'why not?'.
"It was what I wanted to do at that moment. So, I just took the space before I knew exactly what I was going to do. And then I was trying to come up with something that would blend with the Red Brick but be true to Liverpool.
"I thought, because Liverpool is a port city, that doing this could be interesting. I also thought, if this doesn't work, it doesn't matter - I'm going to try anyway. Then, after trading for just a few days I knew there was an interest in this."
Noticing that British tinned fish lacked the range and quality seen in Europe, Patrick believed there was a gap in the market and he leant into the visual appeal and designs of continental tins.
He explained: "I knew that I wanted to do something with food and I knew that I wanted to do something a little bit premium, with good customer service and good quality behind the products. I felt that tinned fish was something that nobody was doing here, but I also felt there were so many good things behind it - it's more sustainable, it's really convenient. I say that tinned fish is like healthy fast food.
"I think in Spain you have supermarket brands of tin fish, like here. You go to any supermarket and you have a full selection of tinned fish. It's very accessible, very economic. But then, you also have a mid-range and a high-end - you have a bigger variety of quality. When I started in 2018, that wasn't the case in the UK. There wasn't much premium or high-quality tinned fish available."
About the design of the tins, he added: "A lot of our products come from Portugal. When you go to Lisbon, everything comes with really nice illustrations and drawings.
"I think it's a result of the place it comes from. We started with products from France, Portugal and Spain because at that moment, we believed the best tinned fish came from those places. It's true and these places have a lot of tradition, good ingredients, they know how to do it."
Patrick found the designs of the tins sparked interest from shoppers but he felt the footfall at the Red Brick Market was not what it could be. This led him to taking the products to farmers' markets across the region.
"When we joined The Red Brick but there wasn't a lot of footfall there", Patrick said. "I think the Baltic Triangle is a place where people are looking for a drink or a night out. We decided that, though we started there, we needed to leave after six months. At that moment, what I was doing was a lot of markets locally - Lark Lane, a few on the Wirral and I had a couple of shops there that started selling our products."
"It was small things in Liverpool, Manchester, Cheshire. I was doing a lot of farmers' markets in the area."
2020 saw significant change for the business. Patrick moved back to Manchester and the coronavirus lockdown led to him taking a more online-led approach. Patrick took advantage of the tins' visuals on Instagram and his Squarespace website. His online store quickly became his main business.
He said: "On Instagram, we put a lot of attention on the visuals - the images and the photos and the graphics. We do that because we think, if we are selling a product that is really good and really premium, we have to honour that product.
"We have to make an effort on the service around it. Because we have various tins with different pictures, that helps our Instagram as well.
"For whatever reason, tinned fish is a product that has always had nice illustrations, nice colours, colourful tins and boxes. I don't know exactly why but I believe it's because the tins could be very bare without. It's a way to wrap them and a marketing tool."
Despite moving back to Manchester and moving his market spaces to London, Patrick has not forgotten Liverpool. He has nothing but appreciation for the city and the role it played in developing his business.
He said: "Liverpool means so much to me, it's a place that will always be in my heart. My life changed there. The farmers' markets around Liverpool were so important. Even though our business became more online-based in 2020, to have the feedback from customers at the beginning had a lot of value.
"So many things that we do now came through comments from customers. We listen to what people are asking for. That time was very, very important. Some shops were buying our products and that was our first real step into distribution. It was a perfect place to start."
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