It’s a magnet for Grahamstown residents who love fresh fish. Every Wednesday and Saturday, they flock to the blue stall on the grass outside the Old Gaol.
It’s a magnet for Grahamstown residents who love fresh fish. Every Wednesday and Saturday, they flock to the blue stall on the grass outside the Old Gaol.
Clinton Welgemoed, owner of Grahamstown Seafood deliveries saw a gap in the local market for fresh fish, and began selling and distributing the product in Grahamstown around a year ago.
Both Clint and his wife enjoy the culinary delights of seafood. “I just realised that there wasn’t anywhere in Grahamstown where you could buy fresh fish,” said Welgemoed, explaining how he had identified the gap in the market. Clint studied Ichthyology and is an occasional angler for recreation
. Through his studies and networking, he made contacts who are now his suppliers of fresh fish. Grahamstown Seafood Deliveries supplies everything from oysters and mussels to hake, gurnard and fish fingers, as well as fresh specialities like yellowtail.
Their fish come from suppliers in Port Elizabeth, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. “We sell right across the board,” said Welgemoed. The business caters for all segments of the market, from high-grade seafood such as salmon, to lower-grade products.
Grahamstown Seafood Deliveries employs two other people. One is a part-time employee, who distributes and sells seafood in the local townships. Although Grahamstown is small, Welgemoed said that with only two employees, it has proven difficult to cater for all segments of the market, as they have to do everything including marketing, advertising and distribution.
While the business also delivers fish to households and restaurants in Grahamstown, Welgemoed says the Old Gaol market is the main contributor to the business profits. “People like to shop traditionally and actually see the product they are buying,” he said.
Welgemoed is hoping to expand the business by opening up a permanent shop. “We are still waiting to find out; there are still quite a lot of negotiations going on. We want to open up a shop, maybe through a joint venture with other interested parties,” he said. Welgemoed explained that there are some disadvantages to running a small business in Grahamstown.
One is the many financial risks involved in starting a small business. The other downside is time. Welgemoed works six days a week and runs all the operations by himself, with the help of his two employees. “I don’t really spend much time at the Rat on a Friday evening. But the business has kept me busy and I enjoy doing it.”
Welgemoed really enjoys working with his customers and has found the public of Grahamstown to be very accepting and friendly. “You can get to know your customer base very quickly on a personal level, which you wouldn’t get to do in a big city,” he said.
According to Welgemoed, the Saturday market is growing, and is receiving more input from the shareholders to make it a collaborative effort. The weather has generally been quite unpleasant over the past year and asked whether it had had a negative impact on the market, Welgemoed said while the customer turnout was not great on a rainy day, he was there regardless. “When it’s raining I get very wet.”
