It was the perfect product for modern green consumers. For the first time, they could buy Britain's favourite fish - cod - with a clear conscience. It even had a smart, sassy brand name: No Catch. This cod was ethically farmed in the cool, clean seas off Shetland, and it was organic.
On its launch three years ago, No Catch cod, the world's first organic cod farm, was hailed as the answer to the environmental crisis brought on by the perilous fall in cod numbers in the North Sea. Leading chefs in London spoke warmly about its firm flesh and its "really nice white flake".
No Catch - which was snapped up by Sainsbury's, Tesco and Carrefour in France - came with a bold promise: it could eventually produce 30,000 tonnes of farmed fish a year, enough to meet 10% of the UK's insatiable demand for cod, despite its premium price.
But now the company behind the organic cod, Johnson Seafarms, is in crisis and its future unclear. Last month, the firm was put in administration and its directors sacked after running up debts of £40m in roughly two years. Yesterday, 14 of its workers were made redundant as the administrators began cutting the company's soaring costs.
Rumours have swept Shetland about the company's luxurious way of doing business, and the speed with which it spent £25m ploughed into the firm by a City investment company since it was bought by some of its managers in 2005.
One of those former directors, Karol Rzepkowski, was often seen driving an Aston Martin, and locals spoke about staff getting 4x4s, heavy use of expense accounts and costly marketing campaigns - allegations Rzepkowski dismissed yesterday as "absolute bullshit".
But the company's plight has led to growing fears that this experiment in environmentally conscious cod farming may be about to end. While several companies are interested in buying the business, which employs about 120 people, the administrators, Grant Thornton, admit it could easily be broken up and the No Catch brand name sold off. The hardest part to salvage could be the organic cod farm and the specialised cod hatchery running alongside it.
