Strathaird Closure is Blow to Highland Economy

The Seafood Company has announced it is entering a 90 day consultation on the proposed transfer of its smoked salmon production at Strathaird Salmon in Inverness to its operation in Fraserburgh. If the move goes ahead, Strathaird, which employs 354 staff, will close in August 2009.

In responding to the news Councillor Michael Foxley, Leader of The Highland Council’s Administration, said: “This is a huge disappointment for Inverness and the wider Highland economy. Strathaird is a long established business, which has provided good quality employment over three decades. We will seek an early meeting with the company and work with HIE and other partners to identify any help we can offer at this time. It is important that we retain fish processing jobs in the Highlands as it is not acceptable for companies to simply export the raw materials from our resources.”
 
Provost Jimmy Gray, Chairman of the Council’s Inverness City Committee, added: “Strathaird have been an extremely important part of the Inverness economy for the last 30 years and their phased withdrawal from Inverness is a major blow.  I feel deeply for the employees at this difficult time.   Unfortunately we have had major job losses before and our hope is that the economy of the Inner Moray Firth is robust enough to withstand this closure and that we can help those losing their jobs to find alternative employment.”

The Company have offered to meet with the Council and this offer is being taken up with a meeting being arranged as soon as possible.