Young’s Seafood has confirmed that it has lost its salmon processing contract with UK supermarket Sainsbury’s.
“We confirm that, following a tendering process, Young’s has not retained the fresh salmon and smoked salmon processing contracts with Sainsbury’s,” said Pete Ward, CEO of Young’s Seafood Limited.
He said that Sainsbury’s wished to protect its Scottish salmon sourcing credentials and believed an alternative proposal could better achieve this objective. This alternative proposal – which is understood to be from Marine Harvest - also offered Sainsbury’s a dedicated facility.
UK union Unite said that 330 jobs could potentially be lost at the Marsden Road site, and the loss could also impact on the Young’s Seafood plant in Fraserburgh, Scotland.
Unite regional officer Dave Monaghan said: “This is extremely serious and very worrying news for the workforce at Marsden Road and also for the local economy.”
“Sainsbury’s remains an important customer for Young’s and we will continue to work together in other categories to deliver great fish and seafood products to Sainsbury’s customers,” said Mr Ward.
“It is anticipated that the salmon contracts will transfer from Young’s to Sainsbury’s new supplier from November 2015. We will be engaging with our employees and other stakeholders to discuss the implications for our business and how we can best position our company to achieve long term, sustainable growth in the current competitive market place.”
Young’s is looking to obtain new contracts to fill the void left by the loss of the contract.
