Gael Force boss buys Dawnfresh assets off Mowi for trout farming venture

A company founded last year by aquaculture supplier Gael Force Group’s owner Stewart Graham has bought trout producer Dawnfresh Farming from salmon heavyweight Mowi Scotland.

SeaQureFarming Ltd was created to farm fish using Gael Force Group’s SeaQureFarm semi-closed containment system but is a separate company to Inverness-based Gael Force.

The deal with Mowi gives SeaQureFarming two trout hatcheries - at Kinnaird near Montrose, and Frandy, near Auchterarder - and two net pen trout farms: a Dawnfresh site at Loch Earn and Mowi’s Ardnish site in Loch Ailort, which had already swapped species from Atlantic salmon. The 20 people who have been running the Dawnfresh operation will continue their jobs with SeaQureFarming, said Graham. Fish health professional Therese Garzon and former Mowi regional manager David MacGillivray have also joined the company.

How it works

The SeaQureWell is constructed of engineered high-quality composite membrane material, cut, and welded to form the 'Well', with structural floatation at the surface and a rigid sub-surface service and support structure.

It aims to provide and maintain a secure controlled environment to safeguard healthy growing fish against external environmental threats to the fish from sea lice, gill amoeba, jellyfish and algae bloom as well as protect against sea mammal predation. Additionally, faecal depositions along with any uneaten food will also be captured in the Well for on-site recovery and reduction for reuse.

Oxygen levels and salinity levels, together with the other environmental conditions, are monitored in the SeaQureWell and continuously observed in the SeaFarmControl centre in the feed barge from where adjustments can be made to regulate the in-Well environment

Surplus assets

Mowi bought Dawnfresh Farming in early 2023, almost a year after the trout farmer’s parent company Dawnfresh Seafoods was put into administration. The hatcheries and Loch Earn site are the remaining trout farm assets that Mowi has not integrated into its salmon operations. Former Dawnfresh trout sites in Loch Etive and Loch Awe are being used to grow salmon smolts for Mowi’s marine sites.

Both the Loch Earn and Ardnish sites are currently stocked with trout that are being grown by SeaQureFarming in standard pens.

Graham told Fish Farming Expert that the company’s intention is to make Ardnish an innovation site where it can install a single Gael Force SeaQureFarm unit – known as a SeaQureWell – to grow trout. He hopes the reduced environmental impact of the unit will enable SeaQureFarming to increase the farmed biomass on the site.

He expects the semi-closed pen will be installed next year, once the company has applied for and hopefully received any regulatory consents that may be required.

“We hope that Arnish will be a site that will showcase semi-closed technology to all of the stakeholders in Scotland,” said Graham, who added that the company will seek to grow by adding its semi-closed pens to sites in partnership with other producers.

Multiple objectives

“We are delighted to have agreed this deal with Mowi which will deliver on multiple strategic objectives for us,” Graham said in a press release. “Firstly, and most importantly, we will secure the jobs and the long-term future of Dawnfresh Farming’s operations and those joining us from Mowi. We know that there is a terrific team at Dawnfresh Farming and Mowi who have been dedicated to successfully running these trout farming operations and we look forward to securing and developing the business.

“Secondly, we will preserve the position of the Dawnfresh product in the market and seek to grow capacity, building lasting long-term supply relationships with existing and new customers alike. Finally, we will be able to develop an opportunity within the Dawnfresh operations to deploy the SeaQureFarming semi-closed containment system technology on our own sites to grow capacity, in advance of us establishing further SeaQureFarming sites and the SeaQureFarm system being launched into the wider market.”

Mowi Scotland chief operating officer Ben Hadfield said: “The acquisition of Dawnfresh Farming by Stewart Graham and SeaQureFarming Group represents an exciting new chapter for the companies, as well as the industry.

“It was important that the Dawnfresh trout farming team would be retained as part of the move, and we are delighted that the new group also has plans to expand. We would like to thank all Dawnfresh Farming and Mowi colleagues for their continued support, and we wish them and the new organisation well for the future.”