Passionate about seafood and driven by a strong desire to bring super-fresh fish direct from the coast to chefs in the landlocked Cotswolds, Tim Boyd set up New Wave Seafood in 1989. Since then, we are proud to say the company has evolved and expanded tremendously over the years (see our timeline).
The story of New Wave begins in 1970s London, where Tim grew up. It seems an unlikely place for a young boy to develop a passion for fish, but this is where the first seeds were sown. His parents ran a residential language school, and to meet the expectations of paying guests from abroad, fresh fish from the local fishmonger, cooked in any number of ways, was often on the menu. Furthermore, Tim became an enthusiastic fisherman. At age 8, he signed himself up to an angling club and for many years spent every weekend heading out of the city with other club members to fish. His entrepreneurial side was also in evidence at this young age, selling trout he had caught to his mother for £1 per lb and offering a cleaning and gutting service.
When Tim’s parents moved to the Cotswolds in the mid-1980s, he decided to join them. A job came up as a delivery driver for a seafood company supplying restaurants, and Tim realised immediately that this was the perfect industry for him. Within two years, he had become top salesman for the branch.
While Tim enjoyed supplying the catering industry, he became increasingly disappointed by the fact that so much of the fish he was selling was frozen. Having spoken to several top chefs about their needs and identified that customers’ expectations had risen over the years, Tim decided to set up on his own, giving him the freedom to buy and supply the very best-quality fresh seafood direct from the coast. He visited fish markets in Brixham and Looe and headed to Scotland, where he drove all over the Highlands – visiting mussel farms, scallop-divers, wild-salmon fishermen and smoked-salmon producers – collecting prices, taking notes and sampling the pleasures of Scottish langoustines and hand-dived scallops for the very first time.
In September 1989, at the age of 23, Tim set up New Wave Seafood in a disused stable in Poulton, near Cirencester, armed with just a desk, a phone, a single chest fridge-freezer and a second-hand VW insulated van. For nearly three years, he worked alone – ringing chefs and selling for two days and delivering for three – mainly to local clients in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath.
In 1992, Tim hired his first full-time employee and moved the business to a small industrial unit in the nearby village of Barnsley, running two routes per day in two refrigerated vans. The company started preparing seafood orders for the first time and was by now supplying some of the most prestigious restaurants and hotels in the Cotswolds, including the Lygon Arms, Le Petit Blanc and Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons.
The company experienced substantial growth over the next few years. By 2000, the staff had increased to 30 full-time employees and New Wave had firmly established its reputation as high-end, fresh fish and shellfish specialists. Having outgrown its unit in Barnsley, in 2001 the company moved to larger premises in Fairford, where we remain to this day.
Today, New Wave consists of 65 fantastic, hardworking individuals, who all join forces to make the magic happen. We occupy 8 large industrial units and have 20 temperature-controlled vans to collect fish from Cornwall and service 16 delivery routes. We continue to love what we do and look forward to supplying you with the best fresh sustainable seafood from Britain’s coastal waters for years to come.
