When sales of fish fillets slow down in summer... a breakthrough strategy for those times

Is your sales floor experiencing something like this?

When summer comes, fish fillets stop moving. They don't sell even when displayed, and you end up having to put discount stickers on them right before closing—you must have experienced this more than once or twice.

Everyone already knows that "boneless fish sells." It has been covered in industry papers many times, and in companies that are actually focusing on it, more than half of all fillets are boneless.

But even if you know it, you can't do it. The reason is the same for everyone.

"I'm busy, how am I supposed to have time to remove bones? Who's going to do it?"

Yes, this is the reality. Processing, displaying, and managing freshness in a rush every morning—it's not easy to find the time to remove bones one by one in the middle of all that.

I understand all the common struggles of on-site staff

When you look at the sales floor, the leftovers usually follow the same pattern. Fillets from the shoulder and tail. Packs of 2-3 pieces that include poorly shaped parts. Don't you recognize the sight of the fillet section becoming a mountain of discounted items?

That's not all. You must have been told by customers that "it's hard to eat because of the bones." In households with children or elderly people, fish with small bones are often not even an option from the start. On top of that, the image that "cooking fish is a hassle" is deeply rooted, so they don't even pick it up in the first place.

You have the desire to offer boneless fish. But you don't want to increase the workload. You don't have the manpower. I think every fresh fish manager feels this dilemma.

To begin with, why is "boneless" the trend now?

Let's organize the background a little.

Japanese fish consumption continues to decline, but not all fish are declining. Fish with "few small bones" like salmon, tuna, and yellowtail have not decreased that much. On the other hand, fish with many small bones like horse mackerel and flatfish are being eaten less and less.
*Source: Fisheries Agency, "FY2023 Fisheries White Paper, Chart 1-5"
https://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/j/kikaku/wpaper/r05_h/trend/1/t1_1_2.html

This is no coincidence. As the population ages, the number of elderly people who have weak chewing and swallowing power continues to increase. At the same time, small bones are easily stuck in children's throats. The segment of people who avoid fish because they are "afraid of bones" or "hard to eat" will only continue to grow.

Furthermore, what today's consumers are looking for in cooking is "time-saving," "easy," and "convenient." However, most proposals for fish fillets are for "salt-grilled" or "simmered" dishes, which are far from these trend words. There is a clear reason why fillets with bones have stopped selling.

In such headwinds, the only thing doing well is boneless fillets. Looking at the fillet sales ranking of a certain mass retailer, the top item was "boneless raw silver salmon fillets," and
about 52% of total sales were accounted for by boneless fillets.

The one and only hint to achieving boneless fish without the hassle

But the reality that "there is no time to remove bones" remains unchanged. That is why I want you to know the idea of changing the very concept of boneless fish.

Hint 1: Use parts that "don't need to have bones removed"

Actually, there are parts of a fish's body that have no bones to begin with. Generally, in many fish species, the part behind the vent (the tail side) has no bones. In other words, if you use tail fillets, you can add the value of being "boneless" without having to do the work of removing bones.

Furthermore, these tail fillets are parts that naturally look plain and are prone to being discounted. By turning this to your advantage and offering them as small pieces, you can transform items that were previously sold at a discount into value-added products.

Hint 2: The "small piece" format solves the need for time-saving all at once

Small pieces are fillets cut to about half the normal size (30-40g). Just by making them this
size, cooking time is significantly reduced. They fry up quickly. They are also perfect for pan-cooking, allowing you to finish them by searing with a small amount of oil. If the fish is suitable for raw consumption, you can even suggest a rare steak style, cooking for one minute on each side.

Many modern consumers cook fish in a frying pan. Small pieces are the perfect size for that pan-cooking.

Boneless small pieces do not require difficult techniques or special procurement. You only need to re-evaluate the parts of the fish you already have that you were previously discounting. The answer is already in your sales area.

We have prepared a POP display you can use for free.

For those who have read this far.

When launching boneless small pieces, how you communicate it to customers will greatly change how well they sell. We have prepared one POP display for your sales area for free.

↓↓ Here is the design ↓↓

We have even more useful POP displays available.

While the one POP display above is sufficient on its own,

• POP explaining the features of small pieces(for frying, deep-frying, time-saving, and bento boxes)

• POP for bento boxes(because the fillets are small, they are perfect for bento boxes)

I plan to provide these two sheets in the paid article (¥980) I am distributing.
The philosophy of creating sales floors will be explained.

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I also share these processing methods and sales techniques in actual workshops and the subscription videos I operate. I have compiled them in a way that can be reproduced on-site.

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