The Scottish Salmon Company's Q3 results affected by poor prices

Siri Elise Dybdal

The Q3 report showed that profits were impacted by the dramatic drop in traded sales prices globally (EBITDA before fair value adjustment of Biomass Q3 2011, £0.7m; Q3, 2010, £4.8m). However, the company maintains a strong contract position with over 70 per cent of the volume contracted with long-term partners.

The net operating revenue for the quarter was £17.8m (Q3, 2010, £20.6m), which brought year-to-date turnover to £74,923m (YTD 2010, £63,663).

As expected, sales volumes of 4,686 tonnes represented a reduction on the same quarter last year (Q3, 2010, 5,468 tonnes), due to an imbalance in production cycles. This is currently being rectified with £40m funding in place to develop new and existing sites.

The outlook for the year remains 23,000 tonnes with 5,000 tonnes planned for harvesting during Q4 2011.

Bill Hazeldean, CEO at SSC also said the key focus for the Company is to grow and develop production volumes to ensure consistent supply, year on year, through all stages of the farming cycle.

"By doing this, the Company can meet the requirements of its customer base and ensure long term sustainability.

“Going forward, demand for Scottish salmon is anticipated to remain strong, with a well-established strong domestic market and developing export market.

“Our operations are running to plan and with funding in place for continued development we are confident of meeting our strategic objectives,” he added.

 Stewart McLelland, chief operating officer at SSC told FishfarmingXpert that the company has made great progress since its launch and are committed to continue investing in growing volumes:

 “As a young company, launched in 2010, we have made significant progress to date and are ambitious about continuing to build and grow a sustainable business in and for Scotland.

“To do that, we need to develop a number of new sites to feed into our production facilities. It is our plan to increase production from 24,000 to 40,000 tonnes in five years. We are committed to making significant investments in achieving this vision and are confident the salmon farming market will continue to play a vital role in the Scottish economy,” McLelland states.