Gilpin Bradley joins Mowi Scotland in business development role
Former Wester Ross owner appointed after selling company to salmon giant
Gilpin Bradley, who sold Scotland’s last independent salmon farmer to industry giant Mowi earlier this year, has been appointed Business Development Director - Farming, for Mowi Scotland.
Bradley remains managing director of Wester Ross Fisheries Ltd, which produces around 2,000 tonnes of high-end salmon annually for the food service market.
Norwegian-owned Mowi has a 100% shareholding in Wester Ross Fisheries and has not yet said what its plans are for the company.
Cutting costs
With a low stocking density, a staff to fish ratio six times higher than the industry average, small seawater sites close to shore, and a reliance on cleaner fish to control lice numbers, Wester Ross doesn’t appear an obvious fit with Mowi, a vertically integrated salmon farmer that sees its future in large, exposed sites and has had a focus on cutting costs.
However, Mowi could keep Wester Ross running as a boutique brand, or might wish to use the sites for a broodstock operation.
Bradley is a former chairman of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (now Salmon Scotland) and has been managing director at Wester Ross for more than 32 years. He has a business degree from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and took part in an entrepreneurship development programme run by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2013.
Anyone who has seen Bradley speak publicly knows Mowi have appointed a consummate ambassador for salmon farming, and an experienced salesman.