Sales up, losses down
The company also reported that its gross profit more than doubled, helping it to reduce its losses from almost £6 million in the previous tax year to £3.9 million.
The company, which includes a farming arm and several fish processing businesses, is owned by the maverick billionaire Alastair Salvesen, who said in his chairman’s statement that the progress was “wholly in line with our three year plan to return a reasonable profit”.
The accounts also reveal that shareholders had raised a further £11 million for the Uddingston-based firm.
The accounts coincide with an eventful year for the company, which saw it become the first trout producer in the UK to achieve Freedom Food status. It was also a year in which it succeeded in fending off concerted local opposition to establish a state-of-the-art rainbow trout site at Sailean Ruadh in Loch Etive, which is now the largest rainbow trout producing site in the UK, and was stocked in May, shortly after the delivery of an AKVA feed barge.
Other notable events include the appointment of Jim Hepburn as its CFO in June and in the same month the company won prizes for Environmental Sustainability and Investing in People at the Scotland Food and Drink Excellence Awards. It is also, incredibly, the 300th anniversary of the company's RR Spink brand.
