Open day draws 200 to Skye feed plant

MORE than 200 people attended an open day held by Marine Harvest last month at the site of its new feed mill at Kyleakin on Skye. The £93 million plant, which is due to be completed by next summer, will have a capacity of 170,000 tonnes and supply fish feed to all Marine Harvest’s salmon farms in Scotland, as well as Ireland, the Faroe Islands and Norway.

The firm said 55 fulltime jobs will be created at the plant and recruitment is already underway. The aim of the open day was to offer tours of the site, explain the work to date and the next stages in construction, and to answer questions about the different jobs on offer.

Steve Bracken, Marine Harvest’s business support manager, said: ‘There was a lot of good interest, particularly from people who wanted to return to Skye and Lochalsh or wanted a career change or just a job.’

He said there were youngsters, as well as The Kyleakin feed plant will be completed next year some older members of the community ‘perhaps wanting to see what was going on’, and the mini bus tours round the site were very popular.

While it might be difficult to recruit locally for some of the most specialised jobs, Bracken said: ‘Skye is such a diverse island, with an amazing assortment of different skills and backgrounds, and it will be interesting to see what comes out of the open day.’

Another open day will probably be held at the site closer to its completion.