Seachill offloads factory as sale process for £250m business begins

Icelandic Seachill, which is in the process of being sold by its Reykjavik-based owners, has offloaded its deli processing site after losing a major client contract.

The Grimsby site has been sold to rival processor Seagold, a company owned by Samherji, following the loss of a major Marks & Spencer contract by Seachill. Seagold operates another site in Grimsby under the Ice Fresh Seafood.

The estimated £60m contract went to another Grimsby company, Five Star Fish, which subsequently announced a major investment in facilities.

Seachill closed its deli site in March, cutting 86 jobs in the process. It insisted that the sale was for the land and buildings only, and that it would be moving the rest of its business to “other facilities” according to the BBC.

Its owner Icelandic announced it had launched a sale process for the £250m UK business, which employs around 1,000 staff.

In a statement, Seachill said: “The company is owned by a fund created by 16 Icelandic pension funds which has a defined lifetime that is due to end in 2019.

“Over the past few years the business has, through strong local management, been highly successful, particularly in the last year since exiting the M&S business and having considered all factors the board feel that this is the right time to begin a positive sale process.”

CEO Simon Smith said: “We are pleased that local jobs will be created as a result of the purchase by Samherji and have worked with both Samherji and the council to facilitate this.”

Seagold were established in Hull in 1996 and import and sell fish for Icelandic firm Samherji. Seagold also sells from vessels operating out of Faroe Islands, England, Scotland, Poland and Germany.

Gustaf Baldvinsson, sales and marketing director of Samherji, said: “This acquisition gives us scope to significantly grow our existing business and consolidate our group’s UK storage and distribution.”