Eighty jobs axed at Marine Harvest Scotland

SALMON farm firm Marine Harvest Scotland has confirmed that 80 jobs will go in the company.

Marine Harvest announce job cuts

The job losses, which are part of a restructuring plan announced in January, follow a recent review of the business.

The news was given at a meeting with staff representatives who were told the company was making changes to its operations in order to make the business more efficient and sustainable.

The final numbers are split across departments and regions.

Ben Hadfield, managing director of Marine Harvest Scotland and global feed director, said: “We are sorry to be losing some highly qualified and skilled people, but we have to restructure the business to make it more efficient and sustainable.

By taking this action now we can be more certain of maintaining jobs in the future.”

The geographical split of the job losses is: Lochaber 44, Skye & Lochalsh 11, Argyll 2, Mallaig 12, Lewis 3, South Uist 2, Wester Ross 4 and Rosyth 2.

Earlier in the year, the company issued a 30 day notice and entered a formal period of consultation with staff representatives about which posts would be affected.

Since then, the company has been in discussions with local agencies and politicians and is doing everything it can to assist staff gain new employment.

Marine Harvest operates four hatcheries, five freshwater loch sites and 48 sea farms.

Their farm operations are situated across the Highlands, Argyll and the Western Isles. Live fish are harvested at Mallaig and processed at the Blar Mhor processing plant in Fort William.

The company has offices at Fort William and Rosyth.

The processing plant at Rosyth is not affected by any job losses as it is part of the Marine Harvest Consumer Products division and not Marine Harvest Scotland.

Plans to create a feed plant in Scotland continue as part of the restructuring of the business. An announcement on a preferred site is likely within the next month.

The creation of a feed plant is part of the restructuring aimed at making the company more efficient and sustainable.

The redundancies will not have an effect on forecasted volumes for 2016.

Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd is the largest salmon farming company in Scotland, producing more than 50,000 tonnes in 2015. Marine Harvest was the first company in Scotland to farm Atlantic salmon and celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.Scottish heritage: for stories on Scotland’s people, places and history >>