A period of more successful trading has seen a Dingwall salmon processing company return to profit.
Following a loss-making year, Edinburgh Salmon Company (ESC) made pre-tax profits of £1.06 million in the nine months to the end of December 2015, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
The company’s prior accounts reflected a full year’s trading, which means the figures are not comparable. But in the 12 months ending March 2015, ESC recorded pre-tax losses of £488,834.
Turnover in the nine months to the end of last year was £27.27 million, compared to £41.59 million in the prior full year.
The figures show an increase in sales in Europe, excluding the UK, of just under £350,000 in the period to the end of last year. Sales in the UK were £25,95 million in the nine months to December 2015 and £40.62 million in the previous 12 months.
The Dingwall firm is directly owned by Merinvest SAS of France, whose parent company is based in Thailand.
In his forward to the accounts, director Gilles Charpentier notes that the company had “a more successful period of trading, which the directors are satisfied with and are striving to to maintain going forward.”
The company did not pay out a dividend to its owners, although it paid out £1.5 million in March 2015.
ESL workforce shrank by 31 to 188 between March and the end of December 2015, including the loss of 28 production jobs, two administration posts and one of two directors. The accounts note the resignation of Colin Burke as a director in June 2015.
The company spent £41,874 on various research and development projects to “facilitate sales growth in the cooked and ready to eat salmon categories” in the nine months to the end of last year.
ESL declined to comment on the accounts yesterday.
