Jobs lost as fish importer ceases trading

A North-East Lincolnshire importer of seafood has closed, it has emerged.

Cook & Lucas Frozen UK has posted a notice of intention to appoint administrators, while its website is down.

The firm, based on Humber Street in Grimsby, had boasted on its website that it imported 300 tonnes of Norwegian fresh fish a week. It also had its own retail shop and smoke house and claimed to employ 20 filleters.

In its latest accounts made up to April 3 2021, the company warned of “significant challenges and turbulence” due to the pandemic, with raw materials prices rising and demand uncertain.

Despite this – and revenue dropping from £25.3m to just over £24m, profits were up from £1.86m in 2020 to £2.73m is it “refined” its operations. The firm employed 70 staff at the time.

Cook & Lucas’s smokehouse remains open, according to trade title Undercurrent News.