Samways Fish Merchants is, and has always been, a family run business, established in January 1961 by Mr. Clifford Samways from a small wooden barrow, selling his catch on the harbour side of West Bay, Dorset.

Over Fifty years on from those humble beginnings, Samways Fish Merchants has grown into a thriving local business with a purpose built factory, a great product range and a good team, providing an extremely efficient service, led by Clive Samways, Managing Director since 1985. It was Clive who headed a huge push into the European market, which now boasts a very strong export team, and it was from this that Samways broadened its business to become International Transporters, with our own refrigerated fleet of trucks and drivers.   Clive’s Wife, Sarah, joined him in 1993,opening their first retail shop in West Bay, she then went on to drive forward the foodservice side of the business, which now has over five hundred clients who are able to receive fresh fish 6 days of the week, with live sales, advice and orders taken until 11pm Sunday to Friday.

Our purpose built factory at Gore Cross Business Park, Bridport, now has over 70 employees to handle all of our customers’ requests. This starts with our intake team, who check each fish on arrival, and ends with our quality checker on dispatch, to ensure each order leaves us in perfect condition.

We are in direct communication with over 150 inshore boats that can land to us on a daily basis. It is our belief that a good relationship with the skippers is paramount to making sure all produce is handled to the highest standards possible. From there, we are then able to supply each customer with the finest fish that the South Coast has to offer. This is supplemented by our ability to source seafood daily from a variety of European ports and bring it back to base swiftly in our own refrigerated trucks. 

We hold a belief that one day all fish should be from Port to Plate in 24 hours!

Samways Fish Merchants

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