A Scottish Sea Farms worker has been honoured at the M&S Select Farm Awards 2024.
Processing supervisor, Nicole McAleer, won the inaugural Emerging Talent award which champions positive role models who make an exceptional contribution to their sector.
The Emerging Talent award is open to anyone aged 35 and under and was one of five awarded at this year’s Royal Highland Show in celebration of the M&S supply chain in Scotland.
McAleer was nominated by the company’s primary processing manager, Donald MacAulay. “Nicole’s commitment to the job, and her appetite to learn and grow, have been instrumental in shaping the calm, capable processing supervisor that she is today,” he said.
“This award win underlines that it’s not only Scottish Sea Farms that recognises the value of Nicole’s hard work but our customers too.”
McAleer joined the salmon producer over four years ago as a trainee processing supervisor at South Shian near Oban. She is believed to be one of only two women in the Scottish sector to perform such a role – the other also working for Scottish Sea Farms.
Originally from Omagh in Northern Ireland, she said she didn’t know what a salmon farm was when she first moved to Oban.
“Considering I had no fish background whatsoever – my dad is a chicken farmer – before working at Scottish Sea Farms, or of running a facility of any type, to be nominated by my boss, four years in, was a really good feeling,” she said.
“This job isn’t for the faint hearted, it’s ever-changing and you just have to get stuck in. But we’ve got an amazing team and I now see my long-term future in salmon farming.”
With Scottish Sea Farms’ relationship with M&S now spanning 20 years, the Emerging Talent award brings the total number of accolades received from the retailer to 13.
