Scottish Sea Farms made £4.3m operating loss in Shetland last year
The Shetland subsidiary of salmon producer Scottish Sea Farms (SSF) made an operating loss of £4.3 million last year, compared with an operating profit of £23.1m the year before, although the 2022 included £11.7m from the sale of five marine sites to Sutherland salmon farmer Loch Duart.
Turnover for SSF’s Shetland division last year was £51.6m, a decrease of 45% on the £93.7m in revenue made in the previous year, SSF Shetland’s newly published annual report shows. SSF Shetland recorded a loss of £2.2m after tax, compared to a post-tax profit of £27.4m in 2022.
“The company has experienced a challenging year and thus a disappointing result for the period to 31 December 2023,” SSF managing director Jim Gallagher wrote in the report.
He added: “The sector in Scotland also experienced a difficult year due to unique biological challenges but we fully expect to return to a profitable position next year as demonstrated during the last quarter of 2023 (Editor’s note: when biological conditions improved).”
Lower emissions
SSF Shetland’s total SECR (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting) emissions, calculated from fuel use, estimated fugitive emissions from chiller systems, imported energy, and business travel, dropped by 20% to 6,862 tonnes CO2 equivalent, although amount per tonne of fish increased because harvest volumes of 8,985 tonnes were more than 30% lower than in 2022.
“Despite facing biological challenges, which ultimately led to a decrease in production and fuel consumption, we continued to drive efficiency through various measures implemented during the reporting period. For example, a £2.5m refit at the Lerwick site, along with an upgrade in the mainland processing factory, was undertaken to streamline processing in Shetland in one centre, which improved overall energy performance for processing activities,” wrote SSF.
“In addition, a number of initiatives are currently being rolled out across all SSF locations, including LED lighting, high efficiency electric heaters in offices and staff welfare areas, timers on barge generators, variable speed drives on pumps, motors and feed blowers, and overall energy optimisation for boat engines and temperature control systems.”
Despite last year’s challenges, SSF said in the most recent edition of its staff newsletter, The Source, that a programme of investment, consolidation and restructuring has produced “game-changing” results in Shetland since it acquired the assets of Grieg Seafood almost three years ago. Among the best performing farms was Coledeep in the Gonfirth area, with an average live weight increasing from 4.99kg to 5.5kg between 2022 and 2024.
