Scottish Salmon Company to cast net wider with £40m expansion plan

By PETER RANSCOMBE
Published on Monday 6 February 2012 00:00

A FISH producer will make a splash today when it announces plans to open ten farms along Scotland’s west coast, creating 100 jobs and pumping in £40 million worth of investment.

The Scottish Salmon Company (SCC), which is based in Edinburgh but listed on the stock market in Norway, aims to complete its expansion scheme within the next five years.

The firm – which produces about 20 per cent of Scotland’s total salmon output – said about half the jobs are planned for the Western Isles, with the others in the Highlands and Argyll.

SCC added that it was currently scoping out sites for the ten fish farms and applying for planning permission.

In the past two years, the company said it has more than doubled staff numbers from 160 to 380 and invested £30m in refurbishing its Marybank processing facility, acquiring West Minch Salmon, developing sites and upgrading existing farms.

Stewart McLelland, SCC’s chief executive, pledged to develop all the new sites to the RSPCA’s “Freedom Food” standard, which sets rules for stocking density, fish welfare and harvest.

He added: “We are keen to bring talent into our business, developing skills and experience to support our growth plans and that of the overall industry.”

SCC already operates from more than 50 sites and produced 24,000 tonnes of salmon in 2010, generating £92.4m in turnover. The company aims to grow its output to 40,000 tonnes in 2016.

In December, it blamed a sharp drop in global spot prices for salmon caused by too many fish flooding the market for leaving its profits floundering. Third-quarter profits slumped from £4.8m to just £700,000 year-on-year, but the firm said it remained on track to hit full-year profit forecasts thanks to its long-term contracts, which account for 70 per cent of sales.

Revenues fell from £20.6m to £17.8m year-on-year after the amount of salmon sold dropped from 5,468 tonnes to 4,686 tonnes due to “an imbalance in production cycles”.

The latest plan to expand production – which comes on top of previous investments – is expected to help smooth out such fluctuations in output.

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wee-scamp

Monday, February 6, 2012 at 11:41 AM

So not really the Scottish Salmon Company but the Norwegian Salmon Company..

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