Hundreds made redundant as Dawnfresh Seafoods calls in administrators

Some 200 people will lose their jobs at Dawnfresh Seafoods’ loss-making processing plant in Uddingston.

Fish processing firm Dawnfresh has called in the administrators (Alamy/PA)

Hundreds of people have been left without a job after one of the country’s largest producers and processors of seafood went bust.

Administrators have been called in to Dawnfresh Seafoods, which operates seven fish farms across Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as processing facilities in Uddingston, near Glasgow, and Arbroath.

Some 200 people lost their job on Tuesday as its loss-making processing plant in Uddingston closes with immediate effect, administrators said, with 77 staff being retained to assist the joint administrators with the winding up process.

Unfortunately, the business has been unable to overcome very serious financial problems at the Uddingston facility, but we are pleased to have secured a prompt sale of the Arbroath facility in a deal that will also preserve substantial employment in the town.

Callum Carmichael

Callum Carmichael, partner at administrators FRP Advisory, said the business “has been unable to overcome very serious financial problems at the Uddingston facility”.

Dawnfresh Seafoods supplies a wide range of retail, wholesale, food service and export market clients with a fully integrated range of services, from fish processing and supply through to the creation of branded products such as RR Spink & Sons and Loch Etive.

As one of the UK’s largest producers of fish and seafood, it processes 10,000 tonnes a year across 350 product lines.

In recent years the firm had started a programme of extensive investment to upgrade its plant and systems and reduce costs, administrators said.

But the business continued to suffer from rising costs, overcapacity at the Uddingston site and cash flow problems.

Its Arbroath facility has been saved, administrators said, with all 249 jobs safe after it was sold to Lossie Seafoods Limited, as a subsidiary of Associated Seafoods Limited.

Mr Carmichael said administrators were “pleased to have secured a prompt sale of the Arbroath facility in a deal that will also preserve substantial employment in the town”.

In September last year the company announced it would spend £5 million expanding the Arbroath site, and the firm said it would shut Uddingston by the end of this year after it announced plans to move to one production site.

Its subsidiary business Dawnfresh Farming Ltd continues to trade slovenly. The business is being marketed for sale.