Young’s Seafood Ltd. is exploring ways to continue to produce Cromer Crab branded items at its Cromer facility.
On Monday, Young’s CEO Leendert den Hollander and COO Pete Ward met with Norfolk MP Norman Lamb MP, Cromer Deputy Mayor Gwendoline Smith and numerous other community leaders at the Cromer facility. Last month, they launched a “Keep it Cromer” petition, after Young’s initiated a 90-day consultation process with the staff.
“We welcome the interest in Cromer Crab, as it highlights how much of a high quality, iconic shellfish it is and its importance to the local community,” said Ward, who accepted the petition following the meeting. “The consultation is underway and we are continuing to explore all options and alternatives raised. Working closely with a number of stakeholders, we are now looking at ways to keep Cromer Crab branded items in Cromer and we will not move these lines to either Grimsby or Scotland.”
“Our employees here in Cromer are continuing to carry on with business as normal, through the consultation, which is a huge credit to the entire workforce,” added den Hollander. “As we move forward, we will continue to keep all the key stakeholders informed on progress and any significant developments.”
According to Young’s, the Cromer facility has been struggling with inflation, industry overcapacity, new capacity coming into shellfish processing, aggressive competition, pressure on margins from promotions and consumers who are looking for ever better value.
Established in 1980, the Cromer site, which has an annual turnover of 65 million, processes mainly Asian prawns and only a small amount of crab, lobster and other locally caught shellfish.
