WildWaters- rising star of the North

Traditionally, Grieg Seafood Hjaltland, which rears over one third and processing over 60 per cent of Shetland’s total production, exported their Shetland Scottish salmon worldwide, supplying superior whole fish and fillets, an area in which they are already market leaders. More recently, however, they took the bold step to open their own state-of-the-art smokehouse in Lerwick and move into the smoked and value-added market, confident that they could continue to develop on their outstanding reputation and offer a world-class product.

This new direction was the idea of managing director, Michael Stark, who had the vision to process, smoke and marinate their salmon locally on their own premises, with no other links in the chain – knowing that they could sell a premium product that could absolutely guarantee on freshness and quality.

Grieg now produces a range of packaged smoked salmon products, under the distinctive brand WildWaters, and they are giving other smokehouses in Scotland a run for their money. The flavours run the gamut from classics such as organic smoked salmon - to the innovative and award-winning delicate flavours of pastrami, shandana, orange pepper and gravadlax limoncello.

The response to the WildWaters range has been impressive and it has already scooped a number of prestigious food and drink accolades, including winner in the ‘Fish and Seafood’ Category in the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards in 2011.

There are three key factors behind the product’s success. Firstly, the quality and flavour of the salmon itself is second to none, with only the finest fillets chosen for smoking. The second is the careful selection of ingredients that are used for the recipes, which have been created and developed in-house with pride and care, by a dedicated team who are passionate about what they do. And finally, it is the absolute freshness that gives the range its edge, with fish harvested, filleted, processed, smoked and dispatched all within 24 hours.

It is this creative and visionary marketing approach together with the instinctive and professional farming techniques that have been passed down through the generations that have made the WildWaters brand the international success that it is today..