The prologue to the story of iASC Atlantic Seafood Company of Ireland began in 2011, when James Grimes and Colin Ross, with their combined 45 years experience in Food and Beverages, presented a plan to the then Head of Innovation at the Irish Seafood Development Board [BIM], Susan Steele, that aimed to introduce new, sustainable, value-added Irish shellfish products to the global market.
Mr. Colin Ross (left) and Mr. James Grimes
Susan liked the plan, a lot, and asked us to present it to Industry. There begins a fishy story…
Following extremely positive feedback from the Industry on our initial “Mussel Butter”, we decided to enter our innovative seafood portfolio for development on the Bord Bia Foodworks programme, in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc [who support science-based innovation in the Irish food sector]. The programme condensed MBA-style learnings with both excellent and practical mentoring from industry experts to hone a market-ready business plan for our company. Simply put, it gave us a “leg up”, access to funding and removed some of the risk from launching our innovative products into new markets.
iASC Irish Shellfish Butter Prawn Stir Fry - Smartphone friendly