Scottish salmon farmer Loch Duart Ltd. has been acquired by AF II Master Fund LP, a fund managed by Colorado-based investment company Vision Ridge Partners LLC.
According to recent filings made with Companies House that confirm the change of Loch Duart’s ownership, the deal went through in February this year. SAF II Master Fund now owns 96.7 percent of the shares in the 21-year-old Sutherland and Outer Hebrides-based producer.
The company’s former owners included The Skoll Fund and The Skoll Foundation, and Pacific Sequoia Holdings – all based in California, as well as Scottish Enterprise, a non-departmental public body of the Scottish government.
Loch Duart currently produces around 6,000 metric tons (MT) of salmon annually, which it supplies to hotels, restaurants and retailers in the United Kingdom and in overseas markets. Its fish are raised in low density, sheltered sites with minimal fish handling. As well as using cleaner fish, these farms use a bespoke, high-marine content fish feed.
In the year ended 31 March, 2019, Loch Duart achieved a turnover of GBP 34.6 million (USD 43.9 million, EUR 38.8 million) and pre-tax profits of GBP 1.1 million (USD 1.4 million, EUR 1.2 million). These totals represented substantial declines, with the company attributing the downturns to increased biological pressures, particularly gill health challenges, which were exacerbated by the long, hot summer of 2018. Reduced harvest volumes were also a contributing factor.
Loch Duart employs around 100 people, mainly at its farming sites.
Last week, it confirmed the purchase of its first fish processing plant – a 52,000-square-foot facility in Dingwall on the Black Isle that was previously owned by The Edinburgh Salmon Company, but closed two years ago.
Photo courtesy of Loch Duart
