Cooke to supply all YO! restaurants in UK

The agreement means all the salmon used in YO!'s 78 UK restaurants will now come exclusively from Scottish farms. YO! will serve more than three million portions of Scottish salmon annually in the UK.

Mike Lewis, executive chef at YO!, said: "Scottish salmon has always been YO!’s preferred source and quality of salmon. The new partnership with Cooke Aquaculture along with Joii Sushi really excites us as we are now able to serve the best possible quality of salmon to our guests.

"Our salmon is farmed in the crystal clear, clean and powerful water around the Shetland Isles which ensures that our salmon has the best possible taste.

"This, along with Joii Sushi’s expertise to only hand prepare the salmon, guarantees delivery in the shortest possible time from harvest into our restaurants, before being expertly sliced into our famous sashimi and sushi by YO!’s highly trained chefs, whilst at its optimum quality."

'Freshness and flavour'

Cooke spokesperson Nell Halse said: "Yo! is renowned for the freshness and the flavour of their products, it is a great recognition for Cooke Aquaculture Scotland salmon to have been selected."

Cooke produces three salmon product lines - Organic, Label Rouge and Superior - at 16 sites in Orkney and 29 in Shetland. It employs 230 people.

Cooke Aquaculture Scotland is owned by Canadian-based Cooke Aquaculture Inc., which also has salmon farming operations in Atlantic Canada, the United States (Maine and Washington) and Chile, as well as sea bass and sea bream farming operations in Spain.

YO! has eight outlets in Scotland: three in Edinburgh, three in Glasgow and two in Aberdeen.