Scottish Salmon Company reveals £98m local spend
The Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) spent more than £98 million with Scottish suppliers last year, it has revealed in its annual report for 2017.
“We have supported ship building in Arran and Bute, engineering on Lewis and diving and transport contractors throughout Scotland. We source everyday consumables, from safety equipment to multimillion pound industrial equipment, rib boats and feed barges through Scottish companies,” SSC stated in the report.
SSC said it recruited 163 new employees in 2017, and by the end of the year had 510 employees.
The company reported revenues of £150.95m, nearly 50% than the previous record of £109.9m in 2016.
In his operational review, chief executive Craig Anderson wrote: “We secured our volume target for the year of 25,000 tonnes and anticipate 26,500 tonnes in 2018.
“Our programme of site development underpins our plans for growing year-round harvest volumes and we have a number of applications in progress. This year (2017) we secured consent for an additional 2,000 tonnes at Portree on the Isle of Skye, doubling our capacity in the area. The site will be stocked in 2018 with first harvests expected in late 2019.”
Anderson continued: “Addressing biological challenges continues to be a priority for the business. Like any sector that works with livestock, there are naturally occurring issues to manage. We have taken a collaborative approach with industry partners to proactively develop sustainable and scalable solutions.
“A new Hydrolicer has had a substantial impact while we have extended our cleaner fish programme and trialled freshwater treatments to good effect. A targeted feed regime has improved fish health and we strengthened our health management team who have further developed our already rigorous approach to health planning.
“Growing exports remains a priority and overseas sales now account for 50% of total revenue. Our provenance has been invaluable in targeting export markets and we have leveraged our Scottish origin and the continued consumer demand for quality Scottish produce.”
Other items highlighted in the annual report include:
- average sickness absence rate in 2017 was 4.27%, compared to 3.9% in 2016. There were 357.5 working days lost as a result of 56 reported accidents.
- 27 community projects were awarded up to £250 each.
- • Additional freshwater hatchery purchased
- • A long term agreement was signed with Hendrix Genetics for the development of the Native Hebridean Broodstock Programme
- A new filleting facility was added to one of SSC’s primary processing sites
