The Kennet Crayfish Company has appointed Larkshead Licensing as their agent to extend the brand into complementary categories and to work with strategic licensing partners aligned to Kennet Crayfish’s eco-credentials.
Crayfish, a smaller, freshwater cousin of the lobster, are hugely popular in Scandinavia, the southern states of America and with foodies (worldwide, with a taste between a lobster and a prawn, but have yet to achieve major recognition in the UK, where the market has been spoiled by frozen, farmed imports.
Recent exposure on television, radio and in print is raising awareness and spreading the word that wild crayfish from the chalk streams of Berkshire are the new superfood with outstanding taste and health properties. Signal crayfish, which are the ones we eat, were introduced into the UK from the USA, to be farmed for the Scandinavian market, escaped into the wild and are now an invasive species that needs to be kept in check. So eating them is ecologically a good thing to protect native species and the environment.
Andrew Leech, MD of the Kennet Crayfish Company, explains: “We need to attract people to try crayfish. They taste great, are good for you and eating them helps keep the numbers down in our rivers. The wild crayfish are processed in a high welfare, bio-secure facility. Everything we can do to get people to accept them as an ingredient for their salads, barbecues and dinner parties is good news all round. So we have linked with Larkshead Licensing to help with projecting that message.”
“Kennet Crayfish’s high quality product combined with compelling sustainable and ethical brand messaging really resonates with us,” said Clare Piggott, Larkshead Licensing MD. “We are excited to be working with Andrew and his team on this amazing food brand and looking forward to developing a range of licensing products and collaborations that will celebrate their green credentials and cooking with Kennet wild crayfish.”
