Marrfish History
Marrfish was born from a long standing and rich fishing heritage.
Going back over 150 years ago, the Marr family were pioneers of the trawling industry in the late 1800s, adopting new technologies and practices across the fishing industry making conditions better and improving quality of caught fish by trialing freezing at sea.
Fast forward 142 years and Marrfish was born. Drawing upon the knowledge and access the Marr family has to the UK’s top fishing waters and fish, we now supply top restaurants and hotels with the freshest fish.
Find out more about our varied and expert heritage.
1860
Joseph Marr, based in Hull, opened his own fish smokehouse curing fresh locally caught fish by renting two fish curers.
1870
Joseph Marr purchased the fishing smack The Adelaide and began to extend the operations of his company.
1891
Joseph purchased his first steam trawler.
1902
Joseph Marr passes away. The name was changed to J Marr & Son with Joseph's Son James now in control.
1913
The company moves to Fleetwood and now have 32 steam trawlers with 11 more vessels on order.
1914
The Marr family trawlers are called into active service during WWI.
1916
Tragically, James Marr passes away.
1919
Alan Marr returned from war duty and took over the running of the company.
1925
Alan Marr passes away and Alan’s twin brothers, Leslie and Geoffrey, took over the running of the company.
1934
J Marr & Son moves operations back to Hull after an absence of 36 years. Trawlers are still launched from Fleetwood.
1939
World War II erupts across Europe and two of the Marrs’ trawlers were sunk by German gunfire.
1940
The entire fleet of Marr boats have either been destroyed or have been called into active war service.
1941
The company headquarters are destroyed by a landmine along with a portion of the surrounding docks.
1945
By the end of the war, just six Marr trawlers remained in operation. The rest having been damaged or sunk during the conflict.
1957
The Marr empire continued to grow with the acquisition of Andrew Johnson Knudtzon Ltd. A new 6,000 ton capacity cold storage warehouse opened as part of the acquisition.
1957
British trawlers are escorted by the Navy boats due to the first “Cod War” causing tensions in the waters when Iceland extended it’s fishing radius to 12 miles. The British trawlers were under constant harassment by Icelandic gunboats.
1959
Andrew Marr helps to pioneer the ability to freeze fish at sea – a concept never achieved before.
1962
The trawler, The Junella was launched. She could either freeze her entire catch or store fish chilled in the more traditional way. The Junella cost £350,000 and had a capacity of 300 tonnes.
1963
Leslie Marr passes away.
1969
Geoffrey Marr passes away.
1970
A new and younger team start to emerge at the company and order 21 new fishing trawlers, demonstrating a faith in the industry and the company going forward.
1976
New laws were introduced and 200 mile fishing limits came into force, meaning many fishermen were unable to fish in the rich and populated Icelandic waters. Many vessel owners sold up and quit the industry during this time.
1976
Alan and Andrew Marr converted some of their vessels to be able to catch Mackerel and Herring off the UK shore.
1976
A new subsidiary, J Marr (Seafoods) was created as an export business to deliver fish to West Africa, Russia and the Far East.
1986
Alan and Andrew Marr decided to restructure the company due to family succession and a de-merger took place. The main business now became Andrew Marr International.
2011
Marrfish was born with the view of delivering our fresh quality fish to the hospitality and restaurant trade.
2017
Marrfish opens Marrfish Grimsby, our purpose built filleting complex in the North of England.
2020
Marrfish launches online home deliveries.