SSF's acquisition of Grieg's Shetland sites such as this has given it extra capacity but has also entailed a reorganisation of back-office functions. Photo: Grieg.

Scottish Sea Farms saves £4m through office merger

Scottish Sea Farms has saved £4 million by integrating the Lerwick-based IT, financial and human resources functions of new acquisition Grieg Seafood Hjaltland UK (Grieg Shetland) into its business, SSF’s co-owner Lerøy said in its first quarter 2022 report today.

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SSF became Scotland’s second largest salmon farmer when it bought Grieg’s Shetland operations for £164 million in December.

Fish Farming Expert understands that all former Grieg Shetland’s employees have been retained by SSF, with the exception of one redundancy and those choosing to take up new jobs elsewhere.

Bigger harvest

The acquisition of Grieg’s sites means the company anticipates a harvest of 46,000 gutted weight tonnes for 2022, up from 32,350 gwt last year.

Lerøy and fellow Norwegian salmon farmer SalMar each own 50% of SSF’s holding company, Norskott Havbruk.

£8.8m in Q1

SalMar yesterday reporteds that SSF increased its operating profit by almost 42% to NOK 105 million (£8.8m) in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.

SSF harvested 7,800 gwt in Q1, up by 32% from 5,900 gwt in Q1 2021, and revenues were NOK 638m (Q1 2021: NOK 396m). SalMar attributed the increase to higher volume and higher salmon prices.

Profit before tax more than doubled to NOK 274m (NOK 116m), and EBIT per kg gutted weight came to NOK 13.35 (NOK 12.39 per kg).