About UsThe history of Yumi’s Quality Foods is predictably one of modest beginnings, when Benjamin (Yumi) Friedman began processing fish and selling it from a small shop in Glen Eira Rd, Ripponlea. Yumi had never before contemplated the possibility of becoming a fishmonger. In his youth, he had been trained as a cabinetmaker, but in 1990, when presented with a business proposition involving fish, Yumi saw the means to starting up his own business. A wholesale fish supplier was operating from a small shop in Ripponlea. His ambition was to compliment his wholesale business with a retail outlet. Yumi took up the challenge and set-up shop. He would buy the fish from his landlord, clean and fillet it himself, sell it to customers and at night he would do deliveries. He then struck on the idea of making fish dips. The business grew rapidly, so much so that Yumi had to recruit his Younger brother Michael to help him. The fish wholesaler relocated the wholesale business elsewhere so the brothers were able to expand their enterprise. They installed a smokehouse, bought the kind of machinery that would help them develop their dip making capabilities. They drew on their grandfathers experience in making fish based dips. Years earlier he had moved to Canada, where he started a business making fish based dips. The brothers went to visit him to learn the method of making dips using a mayonnaise base, they learned what fish to buy, where to source it and they learned how to implement a business plan.
The business snowballed from there. Their greatest innovations was their Smoked Trout Mousse. It was this product that opened the doors of Victorian retail heavyweights Coles, Woolworths and Safeway. But the supermarkets were not interested in one-of-a-kind products, they wanted a range of products. The boys worked tirelessly to develop a range and after six or eight months Yumi’s Classic Dips range was launched.
Today, apart from the Classics range, which comprises of more than 20 varieties, Yumi’s Quality Foods manufacture Mayonnaise, Horseradishes spreads, Aiolis, smoked fish products, a range of Chunky Dips, A range of Seafood dips under the YUMI’S BLUE brand and a range of marinated herring products.
The little shop in Ripponlea, where it all started is still selling fresh fish, fish products like Gefilte Fish, fried fish and fish platters and even Yumi’s own canned tuna.
The dips range has positioned the company in the top three dip producers of Victoria and as far as the Brothers Friedman are concerned, they won’t stop until they hit No.1.
MISSION STATEMENT
An unswerving commitment to provide Australian consumers with the best food products, using only the highest quality ingredients, the latest technology and creative innovation.
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