Gael Force ends production in Stornoway after 44 years

Aquaculture, fisheries, and marine supplier Gael Force Group has announced that it is ending production of lobster creels in Stornoway, Lewis, after 44 years, although it will continue to sell creels made in its factory in the Far East.

Gael Force owner Stewart Graham began making creels in Stornoway when he set up his one-man business Island Fabrications as an 18-year-old in 1983, and four years later opened a 6,500 square foot creel factory in the town.

The company rebranded as Gael Force in 1990 and acquired premises in Inverness, but continued creel production in Stornoway.

“In the last few years it has proven to be no longer viable, and we’ve kept it going because it was where we first started, and we’re obviously heavily committed to the islands and the west highlands economically,” Graham told Fish Farming Expert.

“It was getting to the stage where we either needed to heavily reinvest, which there wasn’t a business case for, or we had to decided to terminate production.”

12 redundancies

A dozen people have either already been made redundant or will lose their jobs over the next weeks or months.

“We have done this in discussion with the workforce over several months, so we’re very satisfied that they’re well looked after and will find new jobs locally,” said Graham.

“We’ve got very loyal and extremely hardworking workforce in quite a physically demanding job, so I found [the closure decision] really tough. Our first ever employee is there, and he’s worked for 44 years, albeit that his plan was to retire at the end of the year, so for him its coincidental with his retirement.”

Tapering down

Stewart said wholesale production on Stornoway had already stopped, although some residual production would taper down over the next few months.

“One or two of the roles will continue until the end of the year, another two or three will continue over the next month or two, and others have finished already,” he explained.

Graham stressed that Gael Force is still making creels at its factory in the Far East that has been running for 15 years.

“It is important that customers realise that we’re still very active in supply of creels in the market we’ve been in, and we remain in a dominant position in that market. Our order books remain open and are quite healthy, and our sales managers who look after that sector continue on and all contacts will remain as normal,” he said.