£15m investment at fish plant nets 150 new jobs

Jul 31 2009 by Chris Knox, The Journal

A SEAFOOD wholesaler expects to grow its business by 10% over each of the next five years following a £15m investment which has seen it open a new plant in County Durham and create 150 jobs.

Cumbrian Seafoods has recently completed a major overhaul of its operations, which has seen it move 70% of its business to a new purpose-built 250,000sq metre site in Seaham, which is three times bigger than its old base. The firm has managed to grow its turnover from £135m to £150m in the year to March 31 2009, after gradually moving most of its production to the new facility from its three sites in Whitehaven and Maryport in Cumbria.

It has also concentrated on the distribution of value products such as basa, which has become more popular during the recession.

The company, which still operates one site in Whitehaven and a site in Maryport, has grown its workforce to 850 after creating 150 jobs over the last 12 months to help run the new facility.

Its new site at the Foxcover Enterprise Park also has a cold storage unit run by The Yearsley Group, which has helped Cumbrian Seafoods to better serve its UK customers as well as improve its export operations, with its fish distributed to France, Spain, Italy and Germany.

As well as producing most of the UK’s supply of prawn cocktail, it also produces a number of breadcrumb covered fish for its customers, who include supermarket chains Tesco and Morrisons.

David Gilthorpe, group financial director said: “It’s been hard work as we started to open the new facility as the recession was just beginning.

“However, we now believe that it has given us an advantage over our competitors. We now have a brand new, purpose-built facility which has helped us attract a host of new business over recent months, two of which are big names on the high street.

“However, we have to be cautious at this time, which is why we don’t expect any major job creation over the coming year, although there is potential to grow staff gradually through the new contracts.”

Set up in 1997, the company formed Cumbrian Holdings in 2001 to help it acquire a number of businesses, including Grants Smoked Foods and Cumberland Cold Storage.