The guy loves fish and chips so much that he bought his favorite chips for the family

Ian Simmonds fell in love with Bedders Fish and Chips in Birmingham working as a taxi driver in his early 20’s and around 30 years later he bought his favorite chippy for his family

A Brit loves fish and chips so much that he bought his favorite chippy and shared it with his family.

Ian Simmonds has been a fan of Bedders fish and chips since he was a cab driver in his early 20s.

The now 53-year-old fell in love with the chip shop from Birmingham and has now bought the place himself. Birmingham Live reports .

He has also made it a family affair to run it with his son, son-in-law and nephew.

The Chippy once belonged to the legendary US entrepreneur Victor Kiam, who saved the Remington company in 1979.

He became a household name for his TV commercials, which featured the rather pertinent phrase, “I liked it so much I bought the company.”

However, Ian was far from starring in his own ad and refused to star in any pictures.

Ian, from Castle Vale, said: “It’s just not me and the reason I bought the shop is to help my son-in-law Joshua Beard, my son Shaun Simmonds and my nephew William Simmonds run it.”

The family were hoping for record trading on their first Good Friday as Bedders is the chippy of choice for Birmingham City fans and the Blues played that day.

Ian added: “Since the first Saturday lunch I had there, Bedders has always been an institution and you never thought it would ever be for sale.

“But then I saw someone mentioning it on a blues fan forum and I went straight around, then I saw my accountant and just went from there.

“I still have to pinch myself to believe I’ve got it now. With prices rising so fast, the industry is in for some tough times, but hopefully we can make it to the 100th anniversary of the business (in 2046). We’re not going to change anything.”

Ian said he’s always been a fan of the fact that Bedders always had a large bowl of fresh onions in hand at the point of sale. “I said to Martin Bedder at the time: ‘Just one spoon, please!’ – Some people fill their plate with it.

“When it first changed hands 15 years ago and the Carrelli family bought it, I worried that things wouldn’t be the way they were.

“But they kept things the same and maintained the standards and their restaurant expansion (64 seats) in 2014 was excellent.

“Hopefully we can do that too — so we’re not going to sell curries or anything like that, we’re going to keep it the way it’s always been.”

The team looked forward to opening Good Friday together for the first time at Easter.

Joshua, a former Miller & Carter chef, said: “Hopefully the roadworks outside (on the A45) will be gone by the end of May and certainly by the time of the Commonwealth Games in July.

“We’ve kept our prices the same – £7 for fish and chips to take away or £9.50 to sit in, including a side dish – either peas, curry or gravy – a drink and bread and butter.

“The cost of fish, oil and even paper to wrap the food have all gone up. Prices can fluctuate – during the week of the three storms, fish prices rose because fewer fishermen went out to sea.

“This is the first year of Ramadan on Good Friday, which will affect 50 percent of our customers, but hopefully we can still encourage many people to come out and enjoy some good fish and chips.”

Following the sale in September, former Bedders owners John and Maria Carrelli are now happy to put their feet up. “The only reason we retired was because we were getting older and it was just the right timing,” Maria said.

“Covid, rising prices, road works… none of this had anything to do with it, we were in business in Leicestershire for years before coming here. Now we can see our friends and our grandchildren again – we had free time before but we always used that to try and help the business.

“If anything, we’ve been even busier during the pandemic. People still need to eat, and that’s the way it is now. As long as you can take care of your customers, I see no problem (with the challenges ahead).”

The Carrellis were only second owners of the company, which they first took over when it was half a century old.

“If we were younger, we would still be around and moving on,” says Maria. “Ian, who has succeeded us, has been a wonderful customer of the store.

“When we took it on, we didn’t change anything ourselves (apart from modernizing the restaurant area) and this approach has served us well and will hopefully help Ian as well.”

And do the Carrellis feel like having fish and chips now? “We cook them ourselves,” Maria admits at her home south of Birmingham. “After all, my husband John is an expert!”