Cumbrian makes a splash
HIGHEST new entry in this year's Top 250 is Cumbrian Holdings, a name relatively new on this region’s workpatch – but in fact the UK’s third largest chilled seafood supplier.
The group, which opened a major operation at Seaham in 2007, is the creation of award-winning Tyneside businessman Peter Vassallo, whose Vassallo Seafoods of Gosforth employed 300 people before it was sold to the Albert Fisher group in 1991.
Cumbrian Holdings, which employs 654 people and has a turnover of almost £136m, shoots into the Top 250 table at 52nd.
Initially it was Cumbrian Seafoods, set up at Maryport in the Solway Firth in 1997 to provide fresh fish, shellfish, coated and added-value seafood products to leading multiple retailers.
After Cumbrian Holdings was formed in 2001, Grants Smoked Foods – noted for award-winning salmon products – was acquired, also Cumberland Cold Storage, now Cumbrian Seafoods (Whitehaven).
Border Laird, a Northumbrian shellfish processor, was added to the group in 2003. It was part of the Ken Bell Seafood Company that went into administration with debts of £7m after nearly 40 years in business.
Some 32 jobs were saved at the time through the purchase from joint administrators, and an investment of £2m was planned.
Cumbrian Holdings’ state-of-the-art production plant opened at Foxcover Industrial Park, Seaham, reflects the group’s passion for fish.
Seaham was chosen in preference to 18 other sites between North Northumberland and South Yorkshire. Besides proximity to customers’ radial distribution centres, Foxcover offered a ready labour supply.
Both in building and fitting out, the goal was to minimise the carbon footprint. Two wind turbines on site have allowed energy neutrality from year one, and links with all the North East’s universities have helped to promote ongoing savings as business grows.
With refrigerated transport links, the shellfish arrive within two or three hours of landing. Processing goes on seven days a week, so the shellfish are handled quickly.
Products are distributed throughout the UK and exported to France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
The Seaham plant, set up with all but £1m of a £10m expansion programme, has helped ease unemployment in East Durham.
Seaham site serves both the group’s shellfish and coated (crumbed and breaded) product divisions. The other £1m was spent on upgrading facilities at Maryport for fish-in-sauces ranges.
Seafood is a competitive and fast-moving market, Peter points out, and at Seaham, line speeds have trebled production rates. X-ray machines and intelligent imaging form part of the operation.
Further up the coast, Border Laird over years has built its reputation for fresh and frozen whole scampi and king scallops.
The shellfish processed and sold from Amble are caught locally during autumn and winter and are supplemented from the West Coast in spring and summer.
Peter, a former Sunday Times Entrepreneur of the Year – an award made in tribute to his development of Vassallo Seafoods – has been in the seafood industry all his working life, and enjoys a reputation for innovation and forward thinking.
Over 25 years, he has taken a particularly responsible approach to harvesting a resource once thought inexhaustible.
He says: “One of our fundamental aims has been to champion a sustainable and ethical standard in all we deliver to our customers”
He led development of a sustainable sourcing policy for cod fillets 27 years ago.
Now his business is endorsing issues raised in the BBC2 documentary South Pacific shown last month, which highlights the dangers to yellowfin tuna stocks from unsustainable trawling.
Huw Thomas, head of the group’s ethical and sustainable sourcing, says: “Anything that draws attention to sustainability issues for wild-caught seafood is a step in the right direction.
“We only source yellowfin tuna from boats using traditional pole and line method. This is a far more responsible method of catching tuna as it minimises by-catch and dramatically reduces the chance of attracting albatross to the bait.”
Cumbrian Seafoods was listed by the Sunday Times in 2007 as its 25th UK company with fastest growing profits.
The company supplies Tesco and Morrisons and it has helped Morrisons win a seafood retailer of the year award.
A former member of Peter’s management team says he was greatly influenced by him. “Whether he had to helicopter, train, or automobile a delivery, he would never short a customer. This commitment to customer service was what has separated Cumbrian from its competitors,” he said.
The group also has fish-related equity investments in Iceland and the Far East.
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