Loch Fyne Oysters and Restaurants

Loch Fyne Restaurants is a chain of over 30 seafood restaurants operating in the United Kingdom. The associated company Loch Fyne Oysters is under separate ownership, but has a common history, owns the Loch Fyne brand, and supplies much of the seafood used by the restaurant chain.

History

The companies take their name from Loch Fyne, a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. The business started life as oyster farm in that loch. It was originally a joint venture by Johnny Noble, the owner of the nearby Ardkinglas Estate, and Andy Lane, a fish farmer and biologist. Initially the business sold their oysters to restaurants all over the UK. In the early 1980s the company diversified into the supply of other seafood, and opened a smokehouse to smoke salmon and other fish.cite web | url = http://www.lochfyne.com/About-Us/History.aspx | title = Loch Fyne Oysters and Restaurants - History | publisher = Loch Fyne Oysters | accessdate = 2008-02-12]

In 1988 the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar was opened on the banks of the loch near Cairndow. The first Loch Fyne Oyster Bar away from the loch opened in Nottingham in 1990, followed by a second near Peterborough. Towards the end of the 1990s, the founders of the business began to look for partners to develop a larger restaurant chain and were joined by two entrepreneurs, Ian Glyn and Mark Derry. In 1998 the Loch Fyne Restaurant chain was founded, as a separately owned business using the Loch Fyne name under license from Loch Fyne Oysters.cite web | url = http://www.lochfyne.com/About-Us/History.aspx | title = Loch Fyne Oysters and Restaurants - History | publisher = Loch Fyne Oysters | accessdate = 2008-02-12] cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2543819.stm | title = Loch Fyne oyster farm for sale | publisher = BBC | date = 2002-12-05 | accessdate = 2008-02-12]

In 2002, Johnny Noble died and Loch Fyne Oysters was placed on the market. In 2003 it became an employee owned company, with its shares owned by 100 of its employees. Loch Fyne Oysters continues to run the Cairndow Oyster Bar, along with the oyster farms and smokehouses. It sells its product to the Loch Fyne Restaurant chain, to other restaurants, and over the internet.cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2543819.stm | title = Loch Fyne oyster farm for sale | publisher = BBC | date = 2002-12-05 | accessdate = 2008-02-12] cite web | url = http://www.cdscotland.co.uk/scotland/success/lochfyne/ | title = Loch Fyne Oysters | publisher = Co-operative Development Scotland | accessdate = 2008-02-12]

As of 2007, the Loch Fyne Restaurant chain operated 38 restaurants across the UK. In August 2007, the restaurant chain (but not Loch Fyne Oysters) was bought by the Greene King Brewery for the sum of £68 million.cite web | url = http://www.lochfyne.com/About-Us/History.aspx | title = Loch Fyne Oysters and Restaurants - History | publisher = Loch Fyne Oysters | accessdate = 2008-02-12] cite web | title = Greene King buys fish chain Loch Fyne for 68 mln stg | url = http://uk.reuters.com/article/hotStocksNews/idUKWLB030420070807 | publisher = Reuters | date = 2007-08-07 | accessdate = 2008-02-12]

In 2008 the company was criticized by news media outlet the BBC for allegedly paying their waiting staff a base salary below the minimum wage. [cite web | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7524021.stm | title = Loch Fyne wages "below minimum" | publish = BBC News | accessdate = 2008-07-26]

References

External links

* [http://www.lochfyne.com/ Official Website]