Kennet Crayfish Company Taps Larkshead Licensing

The Kennet Crayfish Company has appointed Larkshead Licensing as its 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 the U.S. and with foodies worldwide but have yet to achieve major recognition in the U.K., 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 is the new superfood with outstanding taste and health properties. Signal crayfish that were introduced into the U.K. from the U.S. 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.

“We need to attract people to try crayfish,” says Andrew Leech, managing director, Kennet Crayfish Company. “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 around. 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,” says Clare Piggott, managing director, Larkshead Licensing. “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.”