Steve and Litsa Kyriacou have shown that, even after taking a few years out, the knowhow for running a successful fish and chip shop business never disappears. They proved this when they identified a chippy called Deep Blue at Bradley Stoke in Bristol that wasn’t performing well. They believed it had potential, so twelve months ago they reopened it as the Bradley Stoke British Takeaway, and they haven’t looked back since.

Their success is partly to do with investing in the very best kit available, which they did with help from finance arranged through Johnson Reed. An array of new equipment from Henry Nuttall was organised, including refrigeration, signage, an extraction canopy and a grill for cooking burgers. They then came back to us this year for more chip shop finance for a new six-pan Kiremko frying range to replace the old one that was struggling to keep up with the increased trade.

Kiremko is a range of high-efficiency 2, 3 or 4 basket heat exchanger pans. It’s proved to have less oil wastage which enables customers to fry to at least 20 degrees less in temperature and still produce more product. It’s the highest efficiency pan in Europe and has helped numerous ‘Fish & Chip Shop of the Year’ winners to achieve their awards.

Litsa told us:

“Johnson Reed was extremely helpful. They dealt with all the paperwork themselves and all I had to do was supply some details at the beginning. It meant we could get on with building the shop up.”

After twelve months of successful trading Litsa updated us by saying,

“We knew the shop had potential – it’s got a great location being next door to Aldi and it has its own car park – so we’re really, really pleased that trade has gone up and I’d like to thank the team at Johnson Reed for helping me and understanding my position, as I know securing leasing for a new business can be difficult in the current climate.”