Owner puts £250m fish processing business up for sale

Icelandic is looking to sell its £250m-turnover Grimsby business, one of the largest employers in the town.

Icelandic Group UK which trades as Icelandic Seachill in the UK, owns The Saucy Fish Co brand.

Founded in 1998, it supplies chilled fish to the UK retail market and has three sites across Grimsby, employing more than 1,100 staff.

The company exited from the ready meals market in 2014. It turned over £248.4m in 2015. It made a major investment in equipment in 2015 to enable it to manufacture fishcakes after a contract win, and said that had seen sales increase already by April 2016.

The loss of a major (“albeit not particularly profitable”) client was offset by the performance of The Saucy Fish Co brand, it said, as it prepared for one-off costs relating to a restructure as a result.

In June 2016 it lost a major contract, thought to be worth up to £60m, with Marks & Spencer, marking the end of a 30-year relationship between the businesses. This forced the closure of its deli business, which was set for March 2017 and risked 86 jobs.

Now, the company’s Reykjavik-based owners Icelandic are looking to sell the business.

Unite the union has sought assurances over job security at the fish processor. It has about 180 members at Seachill, mainly working in production roles.

Unite regional officer Mike Wilkinson said: “We will be seeking an urgent meeting with the management in regards to the future job security of our members and to understand the rationale behind the sale of the company.

“We understand that the company has had a significant improvement in sales recently, so why has the business been put up for sale? We will require an answer to that question.

“Unite understands that this is a worrying and uncertain time for the dedicated and hardworking workforce. We will be giving our members the union’s maximum support in the days and weeks ahead.”

TheBusinessDesk.com has contacted Icelandic Seachill for comment.