Mersey buys Shelburne Ship Repair

Seafood firm acquires all assets of facility

Mersey Seafoods of Liverpool has purchased Shelburne Ship Repair from Irving Shipbuilding.

The new owner will continue to employ the company’s 67 workers. Mersey will also assume the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by Unifor Local 9.

“We’re very committed to the South Shore, we’re headquartered in Liverpool, this is in Shelburne,” Mersey Seafoods president Greg Simpson said in an interview on March 10.

“It’s an important asset in Shelburne that we want to see continue and operate as it always has. It’s important to the fishing industry and a number of other industries that the facility is there," he said.

"We’ve got quite a few capabilities in the ship repair world and do a lot of work on our own boats, but this takes us to the next level, where we can do most of the work on our ships," he added. "We’re excited to continue to grow the commercial ship repair business. It’s an exciting time for us.”

Simpson said negotiations took six or seven months but that the “main pieces of it were ironed out fairly quickly."

"It just took some time to come to a close – no real magic to it, it just took a little bit of time.”

The sale price was not disclosed, but the deal includes all assets of the Shelburne facility.

Final commissioning work on the coast guard vessel CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 will be performed at Irving Shipbuilding’s Woodside Industries site, where the ship has already been moved.

Irving Shipbuilding began leasing Shelburne Ship Repair in 1998 and bought it in 2011. The site has operated as a ship repair business since 1940.

“Mersey Seafoods has been proudly part of the South Shore fishing community since 1964,” Simpson said.

“The addition of the great team of people and facilities at Shelburne will support our operations headquartered in Liverpool," he said. "We look forward to working with the Shelburne employees and Unifor Local 9 in the continued work on fishing vessels and growth of the commercial ship repair business.”

Kevin Mooney, president of Irving Shipbuilding, said his company will focus on building the next generation of Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Coast Guard ships, as well as repair the current fleet.

“We believe that this sale best positions Shelburne Ship Repair and its employees for future successes,” said Mooney.