UK seafood processor Coombe Fisheries has doubled its processing capacity with a brand new £4 million seafood packing, freezing and temperature-controlled storage facility in Barnstaple, North Devon.
The project began in June 2013 and was managed by food industry construction company ProjectLink, including the design, successful submission of planning application and the construction of the facility.
Three blast freezers, which are capable of freezing 90 tonnes of seafood from 5 degrees to -20 degrees in just 20 hours, were installed in the 21,000-square-foot building, as well as a spiral and tunnel freezer, temperature-controlled production area and a holding freezer with the capacity for up to 650 pallets.
Iain Spear, joint managing director of Coombe Fisheries, said, “Our initial brief was to find a way of modifying our existing site and ProjectLink have delivered fresh ideas that have doubled our processing capacity. They have used their knowledge and experience of the food industry to deliver effective solutions that modernise and increase productivity at every stage of seafood processing.”
Coombe Fisheries Ltd is a local, family business which currently employs 135 people. The company’s main activities are the processing of king scallops, whelks, cuttlefish and sprat and the global supply of these products from local restaurants via continental hypermarkets to buyers in the Far East.
