The East Riding Koi Co. Ltd incorporating Wholesale Aquatics is a Private Ltd. Company owned by husband and wife team Chris and Susan Akrill…..
A little bit about ourselves… Chris and Susan Akrill
Our business started off with the germ of an idea in a young boy more interested in
keeping fish and all that goes along with them, than doing his prep homework….
That of course is some considerable time ago now… almost 30 years to be exact…
After several years of working within the garden centre trade, the day finally came when it was decided it was time to go it alone…..
Our original retail outlet in 1991 was very small in terms of floor space about two hundred square feet in total, but we still managed to have a ‘pond’ in the middle of the floor holding small Koi and other pond fish…
We still have people come to us now saying things like ‘do you remember when I bought those little Koi off you in your first shop? Well they are two foot long now’!!
Around three of the walls, floor to ceiling there were situated glass tanks holding all the tropical and fancy cold water species that space would permit…
With dry goods covering the remaining spare wall it was a very ‘packed’ space…
Summer saw as many trays of marginal plants and water lilies as would stand outside (and that we could find floor space for at night)! We also did pre-formed ponds, pond liners and waterfalls too but they had to be stored in the garage at home along with numerous pipes and fittings etc….
In 1996 we moved to bigger premises, at first we did rather wonder how we were suddenly going to fill all this extra space…. We need not have worried…. Yes, you have guessed, there we were several years on and this space was also packed from floor to ceiling….. Summer time would bring day visitors with dogs needing leads as they had come for the day and forgotten that most important of items. Mistaking us for a pet shop, instead of aquatics they would come and beg us for string. One year we gave away three whole balls in lead sized lengths!!!!! That was when we decided to open a doggy type section. Mind you we do have two Jack Russels and a German Shepherd who always go to work with us, so we understand people becoming confused!!!
But in turn this led us to in early 2000 launching our pet section with great success….
More space was definitely needed…
So…
In 2003 we had the opportunity of acquiring our own warehouse, 29, Havelock Crescent (now home to The East Riding Koi Co. Ltd)
Our fish and dry goods section has grown tremendously…
People who were holidaying on the East Yorkshire coast would visit our Aquatic outlet and take everything from filters to fish home, they would then ring up to ask if we could post goods out to them…..(this does not include live stock though)
So much so, that we were getting enquiries from all over England….. to make this easier for us and our customers we decided to launch www.wholesale-aquatics.co.uk in 2004. This has proved very successful, with orders now coming in from all over the world. We are working on and building this web-site all the time, with more and more product items that become available to us…
There is now a vast array of goods available to todays fish keepers and we do our utmost best to stock the most popular and sought after products…. From the marine aquarist right down to the first time fish keeper who has won a gold fish at the fair…
Of course we are now proud to be able to supply the many and specialized pieces of equipment to the Koi keeper also…..http://koicarp.net
