Young’s Seafood decides to keep open two facilities in UK

UK-based fish and seafood processor Young’s Seafood said it could save around 250 jobs by keeping its Fraserburgh and Grantown on Spey facilities open, but 650 jobs would still be lost.

The firm earlier announced 900 redundancies at its Fraserburgh and Grantown on Spey facilities, following the loss of a £100m ($152m) contract to supply fresh and smoked salmon to supermarket chain Sainsbury’s. Around 300 of the jobs were linked to this lost contract.

The company has decided to keep both the facilities open, while narrowing down the operations at the Fraserburgh plant to hot and cold ready-to-eat products.

Young’s Seafood CEO Pete Ward was quoted by the BBC as saying: "We recognise the importance of the Fraserburgh and Spey Valley factories to their local communities, and we are moving forward with a plan that will retain jobs at both of the sites."

The firm said it is working on alternatives and will stay connected to the affected workers and communities.

North East Lincolnshire council and local MPs have been making efforts to obtain £1.3m in funds from the government to help Young’s Seafood invest in their two Grimsby sites through their Regional Growth Fund programme.

Conservative MP for Cleethorpes Martin Vickers was previously quoted by BBC as saying: "Youngs is the biggest private sector employer in North East Lincolnshire, so the possibility of losing a few hundred jobs was not welcome, especially at a time when the area is on the up."