Over 30 years ago miners queued every week for their pay packets, in a warehouse in Barnsley. Now that very space is filled with Japanese food ingredients, Oriental tableware and sushi-making machines.
Never, in a million mines would Arthur Scargill’s hard working men have believed that such an odd use would have been found for their weekly pay point. In those days the nearest anyone got to international cuisine was a black pudding from Bury market.
But now, bizarre as it may seem, Barnsley has become the UK hub for Japan’s favourite food – sushi.
It’s all thanks to the director of sushisushi.co.uk - former salesman Stuart Turner, who discovered a fondness for flavoured rice while backpacking round Australia.
“In Oz sushi is very popular and I ate it every where I went. They make big hand rolls and it’s almost as popular as sandwiches. When I came back I noticed that the sushi market was in its infancy, so decided to take a gamble that it might become as big here, as it was over there.”
Stuart began in 2007 with just a few products, and the company quickly grew organically. It now retails over 300 Japanese lines, through several online channels, and has a trade arm that services the likes of Amazon, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways.
In 2013 the company was named UK distributor for ‘Sushi Top’, which is a Japanese brand of sushi making machines.
Stuart said: “We now have a showroom set up with high-spec sushi making machines that have come all the way from Japan. When they arrived I was like a kid in a sweet shop! Sushi making is an art that takes years to perfect, but with these machines anyone can do it in minutes.”
The machines allow anyone to set up a sushi business and the company aims to help start ups get going and provide ingredients.
Not only has Stuart imported machines from Japan, he has also been busy manufacturing his own sushi rolling machine here in the UK. Sushi Machines, a separate entity to sushisushi, has built the Roller 35, a manual rolling machine, manufactured to a high spec, in nearby Sheffield.
He continued: “I have spent a year developing the Roller 35 and am very proud of it. It takes the difficulty out of making sushi rolls and means that small sushi businesses can start up, without a large budget.”
Facts about sushi
Sushi is the UK’s number one growing food market, with annual growth of 21% year on year, for the past 5 years (up to 30% in some areas). The UK market is now worth almost £39 million per year.
Sushi is the only healthy fast food in the world. The ‘nori’ seaweed is high in Vitamin B and Omega 3 from oily fish. Perfect for health conscious consumers.
Sushi is very flexible and goes with anything; Vegetables, fruit, or fish. Being creative with ingredients pays off. This flexibility allows for seasonal changes in produce.
Only small production facilities needed and few staff. Using sushi machines production on a large scale can be achieved with only one semi-skilled member of staff and a 3 x 2 metre space.