North East Lincolnshire Council has secured up to £1.346m to help Young’s Seafood invest in its two sites in Grimsby, UK.
Earlier in the summer, Young’s announced that it had lost a major contract and would be looking at its operations across its various sites.
Following urgent talks, the council has been working with central government to extend its Regional Growth Fund programme to be able to help Young’s. This will give the company the opportunity to further develop its investment plans for the Grimsby sites and bid for this funding.
It is estimated that as a result of this funding, up to 200 jobs could be created and another 250 jobs safeguarded in Grimsby.
Councillor Ray Oxby, Leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, said, "The food and seafood industry is incredibly important to North East Lincolnshire in terms of jobs, companies and reputation and we’ve been working extremely hard behind the scenes to help support Young’s in their projects.
"Using these funds will have significant benefits for North East Lincolnshire. Not only does this mean that the funds will be kept locally, the immediate future of Young’s Seafood Limited will hopefully be secured. Young’s are a key part of the local fabric of our community, and we want to make sure that continues for many years to come.”
Pete Ward, Chief Executive of Young’s Seafood Limited, said, “This is a very welcome development. We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in tirelessly working to seek access to these funds.
“We now need to review the details and discuss this development with the appropriate stakeholders as part of the consultation process taking place following the news of the loss of a contract earlier this year. The formal consultation process we are engaged in at our Fraserburgh and Spey Valley sites in Scotland will take at least, as a minimum, 45 days which means that no final decisions, on the next moves that we make, can be taken until the end of August.”
