Fish Farmer

Icelandic Seachill job losses lower than feared

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ICELANDIC Seachill has said the number of jobs to go in Grimsby following the loss of a £50 million Marks & Spencer contract is lower than expected. THE new figure is 86 compared with the 175 mentioned a couple of months ago. And it could be even lower.

The coated fish part of the contract has gone to Grimsby rivals Five Star Fish, while the remainder is being shared by two out-oftown processors.

At first it was thought that Icelandic Seachill might have to cut a large number of jobs, but thanks to some flexible rear-

ranging and possible new business that figure has been halved.

Also, Five Star Fish is expected to need to take on at least 70 people to meet its new contract commitment­s and is likely to recruit some of those leaving Icelandic.

Icelandic Seachill also produces the award winning Saucy Fish brand, which is not affected and is now being exported to several countries.

And it has a large wet fish operation supplying UK supermarke­ts.

The company said in a statement: ‘Following M&S’s decision to transfer all their business with Icelandic Seachill to an alternativ­e supplier, in June of this year we announced a proposal to close the existing Icelandic Seachill

deli site and transfer production into our coated site.

‘We entered into collective consultati­ons with Unite the union and elected representa­tives of our monthly paid employees. This milestone has now been reached and the consultati­ons have now broadly concluded.

‘Today, we can confirm that the deli site location is expected to close at the end of March 2017 and remaining products will be relocated to the coated site location.

‘Although any job losses are regrettabl­e, we can report that the final number of redundanci­es will be significan­tly lower than originally envisaged, falling from 175 to 86.

‘There is a possibilit­y of this figure reducing further as employees take opportunit­ies at our chilled site. However, this will have an impact on the number of agency staff employed.

‘Icelandic Seachill remain in good shape with strong and continuing partnershi­ps with our other valued customers.’ TURKISH Bogaz a major player in the announced that it is teaming up with a to develop a high

The product is a novel feed derived from sustainabl­e and ture providers will test it within six

The company expects to start

Bogaz will be listed on the EuroNext

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