Creating an ethical and sustainable fishing distribution channel, similar to what AMAPs (associations for the maintenance of peasant agriculture) provide: this is the project that the start-up Poiscaille launched in 2015. It quickly achieved critical success and saw its turnover increase from 1.5 million euros in 2019 to 11.5 million in 2022. However, the company is struggling to be profitable.
On Wednesday, September 11, she even sounded the alarm on social media: “The most committed fishmonger in France could soon close, and that’s not possible, announced its founder, Charles Guirriec. We demonstrate that it is possible to succeed without refusing to sell Norwegian salmon, without selling Pacific tuna, without selling Vietnamese prawns.”
The entrepreneur is multiplying initiatives to achieve his goal: to quickly go from 20,000 subscribers today to 25,000, which would allow his company to break even, he notes. To do this, he is offering a promotional offer until the end of September (19.90 euros instead of 22.90 euros for a weekly basket for two to three people) in order to increase the number of his customers.
Closure of many distribution points
This is reminiscent of the strategy of another young company, Le Slip français, which also lowered its prices by focusing on larger volumes. On the first day of its online operation, Poiscaille had already attracted a thousand new subscribers.
For the start-up, which relies on a network of partner stores that agree to receive its deliveries, the challenge is to optimize its delivery costs. “The challenge is to fill the boxes, because when we deliver a box, whether there are four or ten orders in it, it costs us about the same price.”explains Charles Guirriec. Also gone are the gifts offered to stores receiving their deliveries and the promotions for customers, which cost the company dearly (250,000 euros of baskets offered in 2022).
To explain its difficulties, the company puts forward the increase in the price of fish, inflation that penalizes its customers, the closure of many distribution points that received its products, as well as the soaring prices of packaging and the cost of transport. With its weakened finances, Poiscaille does not dismiss the option of a new fundraising or a merger with a manufacturer. “As long as it respects our values, it could make us profitable very quickly.”Mr. Guirriec wants to believe.