Young’s Seafood looks set to close one of its Grimsby sites.
The Marsden Road plant, where 285 people are employed in white fish processing and salmon smoking, is to be shut.
It follows “changes in future demands” for output from the port estate site - understood to stem from contract losses - with the regular switching of suppliers a key factor in the industry. Remaining work will be split between its expanded Humberstone Road plant in Grimsby and Fraserburgh in Scotland.
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Parent company Sofina Foods Europe has pledged to “work hard to maintain the employment of all colleagues throughout this transition,” but consultations are to start soon to consider options. The past decade had seen strong consolidation by the UK market leader in its home town, with processing from Cumbria, Norfolk and Scotland brought to Grimsby in strategic moves.
A Sofina spokesperson said: “The company has explored a number of options to try and maintain production at the site from October 2023. It is with regret that we have been unable to find any viable solutions and therefore are announcing the proposal to move the remaining whitefish processing undertaken at the Marsden Road site to the Humberstone Road site in Grimsby and the smoked processing to their Fraserburgh site in Scotland.
“We have taken this decision as producing the remaining whitefish contracts at Marsden Road would no longer be financially sustainable.
“Sofina Foods Europe will now commence a formal consultation with staff and their representatives as soon as practicable to discuss and consider options. During the coming months, we will work closely with our employees, and any other appropriate organisation, to ensure that there is meaningful consultation before any decisions are made and that colleagues at Marsden Road have all the information and support they may need.”
Alongside extra roles with the work moving, Sofina said it “will do all it can to offer alternative opportunities across the group”.
The spokesperson added: “Proposals to cease production at the Marsden Road site does not reflect on the committed and skilled teams who work there – they are a credit to the company.
“Sofina Foods Europe has a long history of seafood production in Grimsby and whatever the outcome of the consultation we will continue to be a part of the community, given our other manufacturing sites within the town.”
Sofina swooped for Young’s and its sister pork processor Karro in 2021, having been brought together by equity house Capvest. Marsden Road was originally part of the Bluecrest business Young's absorbed as the brand was built up in the Nineties and early Noughties. It had also traded under The Seafood Company name in a brief period of reorganisation at Ross House.
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