‘SOMETIMES it is difficult to know exactly when to go,’ he said. ‘This has been a big part of my life, but after much thought I have concluded I owe it to my wife and family to give them more time.
‘There is rarely a dull moment in this industry and, for the most part, I have enjoyed working in it. But with Brexit we are going to be presented with some new challenges which I think need a fresh face at the helm.’
Norton has enjoyed a distinguished career during which time he has played a key role in a number of innovations, including the development of chilled fish which now makes up the largest part of the retail seafood market. He has worked in procurement, technical, commercial and manufacturing management.
He joined Rossfish the year England won the World Cup and went on to work in various roles for Findus/ Nestle and Young’s Seafood.
He moved to Young’s just as Marks & Spencer and Waitrose were expanding their fish ranges beyond the freezer cabinets. Young’s came up with a new concept called chilled fish, both natural fillets and coated, which had a longer shelf life than fresh fish from the traditional slab.
Norton said: ‘It was truly pioneering work and I was proud to be in at the beginning.’
In 2001, at the invitation of the then chairman Bill Hobson, he was appointed chief executive of the Fish Merchants Association. Again it was a time of great change. Grimsby’s fishing fleet had all but disappeared which meant the merchants depended almost entirely on supplies from Iceland.
But in 2008 that arrangement almost hit the buffers. Following the Icelandic banking crash, when it looked like many British savers might lose their money, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown invoked what was effectively anti-terrorist legislation against the country.
This not only caused considerable resentment in Iceland, but threatened to freeze all financial transactions between London and Reykjavik, which meant fish merchants in Grimsby and Hull were prohibited by law from paying for Icelandic fish. Norton said: ‘Bill Hobson and I were in Reykjavik when the crash happened. The kroner was falling as fast as the snow outside, but we knew we had to act fast.’
So with the help of Grimsby’s then MP Austin Mitchell they contacted the Bank of England, which put pressure on the Treasury to grant the fish merchants a special dispensation.
It forged a special relationship with Iceland that still remains.
Special relationship The kroner was falling as fast as the snow outside