It was with interest if not complete surprise that the news FishWorks co-founder Mitchell Tonks was being moved from his chief executive role , and effectively sideways within the business he created, reached me here on Caterer today.
It's been a painful year for a bright company that seemed to be soaring away only to come crashing down back to earth in a rather painful and ungainly manner.
It's a competitive market place out there and in their efforts to keep pace with their restaurant rivals the previous management team took their eyes off how their existing stores were performing and it all got ugly from there with a bail out from new backers required in February.
As with all drama - human or business - it's been fascinating watching it unravel but horrible also, as having met Tonks who is a thoroughly nice guy and passionate about seafood, the troubles of the company have taken on the morbid attraction/revulsion dynamic of a bad accident where you don't want to look but know you will.
Still, with a new team and structure in place and Tonks still involved here's hoping FishWorks now works, finding better fortune in 2008.
