Hampshire gourmet fish farm transforms into home delivery service due to pandemic

ChalkStream produces fresh and smoked fish grown in the River Test in Hampshire and boasts a list of upmarket customers including The Ritz hotel.

Chefs such as Yottam Ottolenghi and Mark Hix are among the famous names who have endorsed the quality of its products

The company, which did not previously offer home delivery, sold its award-winning trout to renowned hotels, restaurants and cruise liners - but the coronavirus outbreak has caused it to have an 'extraordinary turnaround'.

Now the fish farm has transformed into a 'very busy' home delivery service, covering hundreds of miles across the country every day to provide isolated customers with fresh fish after being flooded with orders.

Owner and founder Hugo Hardman, who is from Droxford in the Meon Valley said: ‘The last few years have been very kind to us and we have built up a great business serving well-known restaurants, hotels and cruise liners.

‘Everything was perfect up until about 10 days ago. Within two days we had no customers - which has sadly been the case for many businesses in the UK.

‘Since it just has not stopped... We're doing between 50 and 100 home deliveries a day.

‘I've done about 300 miles a day in the van, I've been in it non-stop but I'm really enjoying it.

‘All of our customers are really grateful for it, they tend to be elderly people who are stuck at home so it's nice to be able to help out.

‘We always delivered to restaurants and hotels but never to homes - life changes fast and it's just about adapting quickly.’

Chalkstream has also offered NHS workers half price fine food delivered straight to their doorstep to help them cope during the coronavirus crisis.

The business is offering deliveries of fresh fillets, smoked trout and pate within 24 hours.

It has been praised on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and also counts the Pig Hotel chain as a customer.

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