Young’s saga continues

The consultation follows the recent news that Sainsbury’s is set to transfer its smoked salmon and fresh salmon processing contracts to Marine Harvest in November 2015. The loss of these contracts will leave Young’s factories at Fraserburgh and Marsden Road in Grimsby significantly under-utilised and will leave the Spey Valley factory completely empty, with no work.

On 9th July, Young’s announced its intention to consult on a commercially viable proposal to integrate the servicing of the remaining customer contracts and volumes presently processed in Fraserburgh and Spey Valley into its other manufacturing sites in Grimsby, Livingston and Annan. The company continues to consider alternatives as part of the consultation process.

One of these alternatives is a potential plan that could keep Young’s Fraserburgh open on a reduced basis with up to 250 permanent roles retained. This alternative was discussed today with the Joint Consultative Group and with the Joint Stakeholder Group on 23rd July 2015 and focuses on maintaining ready-to-eat smoking provenance and capacity at Young’s Fraserburgh.

This option would be loss-making in the short term, until further contracts could be won and scale could be re-introduced. To date no tangible financial assistance has been committed by any external agency in either Fraserburgh, Grantown-on-Spey or Grimsby. The company is working hard with its employees and stakeholders to see if this new alternative could be made into a reality, as part of the consultation process.

Fraserburgh summary

-              The consultation will continue until at least until the end of August.

-              The company’s expectations are for only very limited redundancies in Fraserburgh Watermill Road prior to January 2016.

-              Young’s is committed to an enhanced exit payment over and above the statutory minimum for any forced redundancies amongst permanent employees.

-              Young’s is engaging with interested parties regarding its Watermill Road and Kilron facilities.

Spey Valley summary

-              The consultation will continue until at least the end of August.

-              Spey Valley is 100% engaged in producing for the lost contract so its volume disappears in November, leaving the factory empty with no work. 

-              Young’s has committed to an enhanced exit payment over and above the statutory minimum for any forced redundancies amongst its permanent employees.

-              The company’s lease expires on 31st December and they are seeking a buyer for the site.

The company stresses that: “No final decision will be taken on the future of the sites until the conclusion of the formal collective consultation process. We continue to welcome new ideas and proposals and encourage interested parties to put them forward for consideration as part of the consultation process”.