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Update from the processing sector
Dawnfresh goes into administration as 200 processing jobs are lost in Uddingston
The farming business of Dawnfresh, Scotland’s largest trout producer, is up for sale following the company’s move into administration.
MEANWHILE, there were 200 redundancies – and possibly more to come – on the seafood processing side of Dawnfresh’s business as its plant at Uddingston, near Glasgow, was closed with immediate effect on 1 March.
Dawnfresh’s Arbroath processing business, trading as RR Spink & Sons, is now part of the Associated Seafoods Limited (ASL) group following its acquisition by Lossie Seafoods, an ASL subsidiary.
On 1 March it was announced that Tom MacLennan, Callum Carmichael and Michelle Elliot, partners with FRP Advisory, have been appointed joint administrators of the Dawnfresh group.
FRP said the sale of the Arbroath processing facility followed a short marketing exercise. All 249 staff at that plant have been transferred to the new owner. At the Uddingston site, 77 people have been retained to assist with winding up the operation.
The imminent closure of the Uddingston plant was announced in September last year by Dawnfresh’s then Managing Director Raleigh Salvesen. At the time, staff at Uddingston were given the option to transfer to the Arbroath site, which the company planned to expand.
The subsidiary business Dawnfresh Farming Ltd will continue trading solvently. The farming business is being marketed for sale and the joint administrators said interested parties were invited to contact FRP Advisory as soon as possible.
Dawnfresh operates seven fish farms and hatcheries across Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The company raises freshwater trout at Tervine, Braevallich and Loch Earn, and loch trout (“sea trout”) at Loch Etive.
The company is the largest trout producer in the UK and the largest supplier worldwide of Scottish loch trout – sea rather than freshwater trout – supplying the company’s own brands, including Loch Etive and RR Spink & Sons, as well as export and domestic customers.
The administrators said: “In recent years, the business has benefited from extensive investment to upgrade the plant and systems, improve efficiency and reduce costs.
“However, despite best efforts to affect a turnaround, the business has continued to suffer from rising costs, overcapacity at the Uddingston site and unsustainable cash flow problems, with administration being the only option.”
Callum Carmichael, partner at FRP, said: “Dawnfresh is a high-profile and highly regarded seafood business with a long tradition of supplying innovative products to a blue-chip customer base. Unfortunately, the business has been unable to overcome very serious financial problems at the Uddingston facility, but we are pleased to have secured a prompt sale of the Arbroath facility in a deal that will also preserve substantial employment in the town.
“Our focus is now on finding a buyer for the farming business while realising as much value as possible from the other assets for the benefit of creditors.”
Victor West, Managing Director of ASL, said: “This acquisition is a major boost for Arbroath and the town’s long-held fish processing tradition. Both businesses are major suppliers to Marks & Spencer, which is delighted that its two key suppliers of ready-to-eat seafood are joining ranks. We are thrilled that the Arbroath site will become part of our group, which will significantly expand our production capability in both volume and range.
“The acquisition of the Arbroath business will provide a platform for growth for the processing plant and its 249 employees, which will operate alongside ASL’s Buckie processing facility, which employs 300 staff, creating a business with a combined turnover in the region of £85m.”
From the top: A Dawnfresh boat; Raleigh Salvesen; Associated Seafoods smoked salmon; Dawnfresh and RR Spink
Native Hebridean smoked salmon shortlisted for international prize
THE Sco� sh Salmon Company’s (SSC) na� ve Hebridean smoked salmon has been shortlisted for an interna� onal award.
SSC’s product is among the fi nal four contenders in the Best New Foodservice Product category in the Seafood Excellence Awards. The fi nal judging will take place at the Seafood Expo North America/ Seafood Processing North America show in Boston on Sunday 13 March.
The fi sh is a unique strain of Sco� sh salmon, originally bred from wild Hebridean salmon in North Uist and reared exclusively in and fully traceable to the remote waters of the Hebridean islands and West Coast of Scotland.
Using a tradi� onal island recipe, fresh fi llets are hand cured at SSC’s Harris & Lewis Smokehouse on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.
The na� ve Hebridean is then gently smoked in a tradi� onal pebble-lined kiln using wood shavings of aged Scotch whisky barrels.
Su Cox, Communica� ons and Business Development Director at the Sco� sh Salmon Company, said: “Na� ve Hebridean is truly unique and this nomina� on is further recogni� on of how the product is highly prized by top chefs and the hospitality trade.
“Our na� ve Hebridean smoked salmon off ers the discerning consumer a truly Sco� sh delicacy with unique heritage and is fully traceable to the Hebridean islands and West Coast of Scotland. It is truly our Hebridean hero!”
SSC is part of the Bakkafrost group. Last year, na� ve Hebriden smoked salmon was a category winner in the Great Bri� sh Food Awards. The fi nalists in the Foodservice Product category are:
Bakkafrost/SSC – Nati ve Hebridean Smoked Scotti sh Salmon Side Handy Seafood – Chesapeake Bay Panko Breaded Oysters Netuno USA – Cobia Panko Bites Seagrove Kelp Co. – Seagrove Ribbon Kelp
The fi nalists in the Best New Retail Product category are:
DOM Interna� onal Limited – DOM Reserve Salmon Poke Neptune Snacks – Wild Alaska Pollock Jerky Ocean Beauty Seafoods – Echo Falls Wild Alaska Hot Smoked
Sablefi sh
Ocean Beauty Seafoods – Echo Falls Wild Alaska Sockeye Salmon
Tapas Slices – Mediterranean
Pacifi c Seafood – Tidal Tots Pescanova USA – Pescanova Branzino* with Pesto Sauce Kitchens Seafood, Inc. – Honey Walnut Shrimp
*sea bass
Lerøy Seafood’s Madrid factory set to develop new products
Above: Lerøy Processing Spain LERØY Seafood said its latest factory near Madrid would provide a platform for the launch of several new products to strengthen its position in Spain and Portugal.
At 9,000 square metres and employing 160 people, the new facility is Lerøy’s largest so far in the region.
The company, which is also a co-owner of Scottish Sea Farms, said it had been strategically designed to both increase production capacity for current products and extend the group’s product range.
Antonio Díez, Managing Director of Lerøy Processing Spain, said: “Processing fresh and frozen fish, smoking salmon and producing ready meals are some of the innovations that will create new business opportunities.
“This will undoubtedly reinforce the company’s leading position in the seafood market in Spain and the whole Iberian Peninsula.”
Lerøy already has factories in Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Las Palmas in Spain, along with a site in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital. These will now all be upgraded so they can make new products.
“We can create new products in response to demand from our customers in order to extend our range and to enter new segments,” Díez added.
The new ranges include sushi, noodles, cod and salmon burgers, poke bowls and fish-based ready meals along with more traditional smoked salmon, frozen salmon and fresh salmon products in consumer packaging.
Lerøy Processing Spain currently employs around 350 people, but Díez believes that number will rise in the future.
The new Madrid factory has three zones: one for ready meals such as sushi and other dishes, one for processing fresh and frozen fish, as well as one for smoking fish.
It also has a biological treatment plant designed to reduce its environmental impact.
