Gordon Jeffrey will take a more hands-on role in day-to-day management at Aqualife.

Aqualife shuffles roles in expansion bid

Scottish-based fish vaccination company Aqualife has announced a management restructure, with the aim of supporting diversification and global expansion.

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Aqualife's founder and CEO, Gordon Jeffrey, will have a more hands-on role, the firm said in a press release. Technical chief, Phil Brown, takes on a new role as innovation leader, and former CEO Ronnie Soutar will be head of fish health and welfare, reflecting the company's ambitions for further expansion outside the vaccination sector.

Jeffrey said: "In recent years, I have worked on the big picture of Aqualife's future while Ronnie dealt with practical conditions for restructuring our organisation.

“In 2015, we merged with Salmovac and Kathy Taylor became part of our team. She is now managing customer business outside Norway. Last year, we took Roar Tomassen in to lead the development in Norway. With these two, along with the head of operations Robert Wittmann, we have a very strong and practical team to support our colleagues in the field of an increasingly globalised company. Going into a new development phase, the time is right for me to become more directly involved in day-to-day management."

Ronnie Soutar has promised to announce new veterinarian services developments by August.

Growth sector

Veterinarian Ronnie Soutar added: "Providing broader fish health, welfare services and advice in this area, goes hand in hand with the development of Aqualife's world-leading vaccination service. It becomes particularly visible when we enter new global markets: 2017 is turning out to be a truly international year for the company. My new role allows me to build on my roots as a fish veterinarian. It is a real growth sector and I aim to announce new developments in our services at AquaNor in Trondheim (in August), if not before."

Head of innovation Phil Brown said: "My focus is now on developing a mobile and automated vaccination technology as a complement to our traditional manual vaccination services. We moved to a new workshop earlier this year, and collaborate with local innovation partners. Exciting results. "

Jeffrey added: "Our continued vision for Aqualife is to stand out as leaders and pioneers, not just within the vaccination of fish but in fish health and welfare in general. The new roles give me great confidence in the realisation of our vision."

Aqualife was founded on Skye in the 1990s and is now based in Stirling.