East London salmon tradition is a smoking success

Just inside the Stour Road factory, racks of salmon hang brazenly behind a pane of glass. Within hours, these fish will be on their way to customers such as Fortnum and Mason and the House of Lords, and hotels in Barbados, Hong Kong and Las Vegas. But not before they undergo a traditional hand-carving process that has endured since the company's foundation in 1905.

Henry Forman arrived in east London from Russia at the beginning of the last century, and helped develop a mild London Cure for Scottish salmon which roused tastebuds around the world.

The latest Forman to continue this tradition is Lance, who joined the business in 1994 after spells as a chartered accountant and a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

He said: "When I was six, my dad would bring me to the factory and I would carve fish. I grew up with it. My parents didn't try to pressure me to come into the business, but the pressure of history was always there.

"They say family businesses self-destruct in the third generation, so we're in uncharted territory.

"You see a modern factory here but our process hasn't changed for 100 years. We haven't tried to speed it up and cut corners. We believe in traditional ways of doing things.

"We have a fantastic client base and a reputation for quality."

H Forman and Son has focused on "quality, artisanship and tradition" since Lance's arrival, rather than try to compete with mass producers. Wild Scottish salmon arrives within 24 hours of being caught, while farmed salmon is in east London in 48 hours.

It is then cleaned, split and trimmed by hand and lightly salted before being hung for smoking with the bones still included. It is often hand-carved and sent to customers on the same day it leaves the kiln.

Lance said: "The whole business employs about 75 people. We're much more like a kitchen than a normal factory. That applies to literally every order we get.

"When we cure our salmon we only use about three per cent salt. We don't want it to have a long shelf life. We can deliver it to our customers to eat it fresh on the day.

"Over the last 20 to 30 years supermarkets started to want long shelf life, so companies would use five per cent salt. Then you'd have to even it out with sugar.

"Now the supermarkets are deciding that salt is bad for you, and they're going back to the traditional way of doing things.

"Our history is an anchor for us. It's one thing knowing how to do it and another to be able to do it consistently and do it well. We have 100 years of experience and tradition and I think that really matters."

While H Forman and Son embraces the past, it has also branched out. Its on-site restaurant combines the famous salmon with other British delicacies and a range of English-only wines.

It is also a popular space for parties and exhibitions. It hosted this year's Docklands Business Club awards, and was home to artwork from contemporary arts festival Hackney Wicked last month.

Graffiti artists even did a spot of decorating in the venue's toilets as part of the event, adding a dynamic fish theme to the walls.

Lance said: "With the building itself, we have tried to keep it quite industrial. It's quite East London, cool and trendy, and that's what we thought we'd do with the artwork as well.

"After all, it's better to have graffiti on the inside than on the outside."

Forman's Fish Island also boasts a production kitchen which develops restaurant quality food such as terrines and fishcakes. Many of these are sold on through mail order food company Forman and Field, which was set up in 2002 to deliver fine British delights such as game, cheese, hampers and dinner party desserts and hampers.

Lance said: "The mail order side of the business is doing very well. People are getting restaurant quality food delivered to their homes.

"In a recession - and we've been through quite a few - we've actually found that things improve.

"In a funny way, the last thing that people cut back on is their food. People still need those little treats occasionally. They're not going to cancel their weddings and birthdays.

"In the boom times, everyone sets up in competition with you but a recession is a good economic cleansing system. The bad businesses die out and the good survive.

"It just sorts out the men from the boys."