U.K.-based seafood processor Dawnfresh Seafoods has announced plans to close its processing plant in Uddingston, near Glasgow, Scotland, and expand its site at Arbroath, Angus, on Scotland’s east coast.
With the Uddingston plant closure scheduled for mid-2022, the Scottish-owned family company has started a 45-day consultation with staff. It wants to move production teams to its Arbroath site, and is offering employees a relocation allowance, access to local area support from Angus Council, and protection of current pay and conditions.
Dawnfresh, which currently has 230 permanent production staff in Uddingston and 180 in Arbroath, said the latter will get 150 new permanent production staff under the plans.
Any reduction in overall headcount is likely to result from people choosing not to apply for a new role and a slimmed-down management structure, it said, with no current jobs in Arbroath at risk.
Through the GBP 5 million (USD 6.9 million, EUR 5.9 million) investment in Arbroath, Dawnfresh aims to grow the tonnage of seafood it processes by 30 percent over the next five years and increase its number of product lines it currently delivers, a figure that currently stands at around 350 lines.
“For the remainder of this year and until the move next year, our operations at Uddingston will very much continue as normal,” Dawnfresh Seafoods Managing Director Raleigh Salvesen said.
Salvesen said the move to Arbroath will be “critical” for the company’s future.
“The plan to expand facilities at Arbroath will provide a platform for future growth and help Dawnfresh to adapt to a changing and highly-competitive business sector,” Salvesen said. “This move is critical if we are to meet our objective of keeping seafood production jobs in Scotland.”
Dawnfresh aims to have the expanded site fully operational in the middle of next year, Salvesen said.
The company currently produces 10,000 metric tons (MT) of seafood a year for foodservice and retail, for the U.K. and international markets. It also manages a number of farming sites across Scotland.
Photo courtesy of Dawnfresh
