JCS nets £2.4m for new fish processing facility

BACKING APPROVED FOR STATE-OF-THE-ART FACTORY

AFURTHER £2.4 million of funding has been ring-fenced for a Grimsby seafood firm’s potential expansion. JCS Fish has had backing for a proposal for a new state-of-the-art 2,000 sq m fish processing factory with integrated smokehouse approved. Understood to be at an early stage, it could double salmon and trout capability to 20 tonnes per day, with the potential to add 32 jobs in the town. It was part of the same tranche that saw HSH Coldstores awarded the single largest grant from the new UK Seafood Infrastructure Fund, with a £5 million contribution. Investment has lightened the mood in the sector, following Icelandic Seafood International’s decision to exit UK operations, with 200 jobs at risk in Grimsby. That was raised with the Minister on his visit.

He had stated administrators had been appointed in media interviews, but this was refuted by the business, which is working with specialist MAR Advisors to achieve a sale.

The company operates the huge former Five Star Fish plant on Great Grimsby Business Park, having merged two businesses into it as Covid struck UK shores.

Mr Spencer told how there would be “wrinkles on the way” following Brexit, with the company’s chief executive having pointed to harder trading conditions as part of the reasoning behind the decision to dispose, with losses of £12 million revealed.

He said: “It is very sad for these people, losing jobs - potentially - and I hope the administrator can find someone to take it on lock, stock and barrel. With this investment there will be other jobs in the fish processing industry and as a nation we have reason to be optimistic about the future.”

ISI had announced it was to pull out of the UK in a trading update just over a week ago.

It is rigorously pursuing a sale, with interest mooted.

Following his comments, Bjarni Ármannsson, Icelandic Seafood International group chief executive, said: “Iceland Seafood is running a sales process on its UK subsidiary, Iceland Seafood UK, after having decided to exit the UK value-added operation. “MAR Advisors have been mandated to run the process.

“We are currently presenting the company to prospective buyers.

“As Iceland Seafood is a publiclylisted company we will report the outcome of such a process at an appropriate time to the market.

“Any suggestions that Iceland Seafood UK is in a liquidation process are false. That is not the case at all.” Grimsby MP Lia Nici had earlier in the week taken to social media to air her concerns about finding out about the company’s plight via social media. The Westminster agenda led to her missing Mr Spencer’s visit, but she met with him in London prior to his arrival. It has also been confirmed that Grimsby is to host a major industry conference in 2024.

The town will be the venue for the International Coldwater Prawn Forum, having been announced as the 2022 event closed in Tromso, Norway.

It is likely to bring more than 200 delegates.

Grimsby successfully hosted the World Seafood Congress in 2015.