Inverness man nets royal awards praise
AN Inverness man who started a thriving seafood and game business with the support of The Prince’s Trust, has come runner-up at a prestigious awards ceremony.
Magnus Houston (32) a finalist for the RBS Youth Business Scotland Award at The Prince’s Trust & Sumsung Celebrate Success Awards held in Glasgow last night at The Crowne Plaza Hotel.
This year was the 10th anniversary of the Trust’s annual awards, which have recognised the achievements of young people in Scotland for the last decade.
The RBS Youth Business Scotland category recognises young people who have succeeded in starting a sustainable business, creating benefits for themselves and for their communities.
When an accident put an end to Magnus’s professional motorcycling career, he didn’t know where to turn, but when a friend invited him on his lobster boat, the experience proved to be life changing. With support from The Prince’s Trust, Magnus started his own fishmonger merchant service company and is now competing with well-established national fish suppliers.
He said: "Out on the boat, everything just clicked into place. I loved it and realised that it was what I wanted to do for a career."
Magnus discovered his love for fishing during a trip on his friend’s lobster boat. With his career in motorcycling over, he decided to pursue fishing permanently and spent the next two years learning the trade inside out by gaining practical experience, researching the industry and establishing contacts with other fishermen and local restaurants and hotels.
Keen to take his love of fishing further, Magnus secured funding from The Prince’s Trust and, pooling it with his savings, established Coast & Glen Ltd, selling prawns, crabs, lobsters and game to local hotels and restaurants, and to clients in Europe. Magnus generated over £100,000 in the first six months of trading.
Eager to please his growing customer base, Magnus started sourcing every request he got for fish no matter what it was or where it was from. This was a learning curve.
He said: "I always got hold of the fish they wanted, but I realised that the company would lose its identity and the quantities my customers requested were so small, I wasn’t making any profit. So I decided to rethink my business model."
With increasing demand for food traceability, Magnus decided to market Coast & Glen as a company that only sells fresh, locally caught fish and shellfish. Now his customers can not only trace the area their fish comes from, they can identify which boat landed their products. Once the local market is saturated, Magnus then exports the remainder.
Magnus has worked hard to create solid relationships with local clients as well as European ones. He soon hopes to expand further into Europe and is in the process of setting up trade links with America and the Far East. He has also started a fish box for the public whereby he delivers a selection of fresh fish direct to the doors of his customers.
Thom Kenrick, RBS Group head of sustainability programmes, said: "Magnus represents the many thriving new businesses this has helped to create in the region. It’s not an easy time to start a new business but he has shown that true entrepreneurial talent and the right support can give ambitious young people the tools to create their own successful future."
