The Thailand-based owner of a Dingwall salmon processing business has said it is willing to keep backing the firm for the “foreseeable future” after losses of more than £7million.
Edinburgh Salmon Company (ESC) blamed the high price of fish, which it was unable to pass on to customers, for it plunging into the red during a “difficult year” in 2016.
Accounts for the firm, which employs almost 200 people in the Ross-shire town, showed pre-tax losses of £7.02million for 2016 after profits of £1.06million in the previous nine months.
Turnover was £44.05million last year, having reached £27.27million in the 39 weeks of 2015 included in its last figures.
In a forward to the latest accounts, just released by Companies House, ESC’s directors said: “The company had a difficult year, with a large loss resulting from the very high price of fish, which it was unable to recover from its customers.”
At the time of writing, they were not aware of “any likely changes in the company’s activity in the next year”.
The report added: “The ultimate parent undertaking, Thai Union Group Public Company Limited, will provide adequate resources to allow the company to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.”
According to industry reports, ESC lost a multi-million-pound contract to supply salmon to sandwich and salad chain Pret A Manger earlier this year, with the business going to Grimsby-based Young’s Seafood. It lost its long-standing position as the only private label smoked salmon supplier for supermarket giant Asda to Young’s in 2014.
ESC was sold for a reported £11.5million by J.W. Seafoods to Merinvest, the French parent of seafood firm MerAlliance, in 2012.
At the time, the Dingwall company’s management said it would help in the next stage of its “ambitious growth plans” and provide the opportunity for its products to be marketed in “wider Europe”.
In September 2014, MerAlliance was acquired by Thai Union, through its Paris-based subsidiary MW Brands, whose portfolio includes the John West tinned salmon range.
ESC declined to comment on its annual results yesterday. There was no response to requests for comments to MerAlliance or Thai Union.
