£1m contract secured by Highland based engineering group

Scottish Sea Farms has agreed a contract, worth almost £1 million, with Inverness-based Gael Force Group. The contract, signed this week, is for a SeaMate 150T feed barge and mooring systems.

John Offord, Managing Director, Gael Force Group and Richard Darbyshire, Orkney Regional Manager, Scottish Sea Farms

The feed barge is destined for Scottish Sea Farms’ Orkney region and will be located at the new Westerbister site by September 2016.

Jim Gallagher, Managing Director, Scottish Sea Farms, commented: “This contract represents a further major investment by Scottish Sea Farms within the Scottish economy.

Wherever possible, we are working with Scottish suppliers as we grow and develop our salmon farming business in Orkney to meet the ever growing demand for our product.”

Stewart Graham, Group Managing Director, Gael Force, said: “Gael Force is delighted to receive these orders from Scottish Sea Farms. We employ around 150 people across our operations and aquaculture is by far the largest and most important part of our business. This order helps sustain 30 jobs in our barge building yard and is another example of just how important it is for the Scottish Highland economy to have a growing aquaculture sector which supports five or six jobs in the supply chain for every job directly employed in the fish growing sector of the industry.”

This latest contract is part of a multi-million pound ongoing investment programme by Scottish Sea Farms which operates in multiple locations in Argyll, the Highlands, Orkney and Shetland and employs over 400 people. As well as the new 1791T site at Westerbister, the company has also recently expanded its Orkney sites in Eday and at Toyness in Scapa Flow. This has increased farming capacity for SSF Orkney produced salmon to an anticipated 7300 tonnes per year.

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