Eden's relaunched Sapphire Smokehouse stays on local hands

Mr Thurling grew up experimenting with smoked goods at his father's walk-in smokeroom in Kiah and had been making his own as a side business in recent years when he heard about Eden's popular smokehouse shutting down.

"Everyone in town was really upset about the smokehouse shutting down and I just thought well I've been smoking goods long enough maybe it's time to get into it," he said.

Mr Thurling had initially approached the owner of the building, Gary Warren but once former owner Stan Soroka heard about Mr Thurling's enthusiasm and business idea he reached out himself.

Mr Thurling said Stan had initially intended to sell off his equipment from the smokehouse to businesses in the city but had preferred to keep it local.

"He did actually have buyers lined up, but he pulled the pin on them so that a local could get back into the smokehouse and start producing right away," he said.

Mr Thurling said the response from the public since their Grand Opening on December 17 had been tremendous and they simply couldn't keep up with demand.

"We sold 100kg of mussels in four hours on one of the days and the demand has stayed pretty consistent since then," he said.

Ms Parnell said despite the number of tourists coming through to visit, their biggest support had been from locals.

"The tourists have been awesome this year but the local support has been even bigger," she said.

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Ms Parnell said they'd also received tremendous support from numerous businesses along the Sapphire Coast, that either stocked their product or incorporated them into their menus.

"We've started selling our products to numerous local businesses, from local IGAs to the Pambula Fruit Market and Rusty Plough," she said.

"The support has been great, we wish we could keep up with the demand."

Mr Thurling said so far their products had consistently sold within 24 hours of being put on display.

"We'll get our mussels in and shell them and smoke them in a day and then they'll be gone by the next day," he said.

The fresh products on offer include smoked mussels and abalone which are sourced locally, as well as smoked salmon, gravlax, yellowfin sashimi, smoked chicken and more.

Mr Thurling said they have some exciting new products that they're looking to launch during the winter season, which locals and visitors can be excited about.

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