Shines Wild Irish Tuna is a family business based in Killybegs. John and Marianne Shine began sourcing Wild Albacore Tuna when they owned their own fish shop but quickly discovered this was harder than they thought. They began working with local fishermen in Killybegs and the Shines brand was born.
2020 has been a busy year for them, as John explains: “Since the lockdown in March, our business has increased as people started to stockpile and panic-buy supplies of non-perishable food like our tuna. We have also been celebrating some award success for the business. Last week we won two gold stars at the Great Taste Awards for our Wild Irish Tuna Ventresca. This product is only available in Ireland from our website www.shinesseafood.ie”.
“Our Chip Mate (Chip shop vinegar) is currently the number one selling vinegar product on Amazon UK. We have also sent our first delivery of our products to a new distributor in Singapore. We are now working with this agent in Singapore, as they want us to help them source more Donegal and Irish products including organic fruit and vegetables, hormone-free meat and organic cosmetics. We worked with Local Enterprise Office Donegal to build our new website through a Trading Online Voucher and it really helped us capitalise on demand for our product since March. International demand for our products is increasing all the time and we expect to grow sales in Ireland and Amazon UK for the Christmas season.”