Scotland

Plenty of fishy business for new processing plant

Edinburgh Smoked Salmon

An exciting extension project will allow the Edinburgh Salmon Company (ESCo) to increase sales by £20 million a year, in the process creating 100 jobs for local people.

As the largest fish processor in the Highlands, ESCo has recently been bought over by French company MerInvest – the parent company of MerAlliance. MerInvest has a turnover in excess of £75 million with businesses in France (Amoric S.A.S and Narvik S.A.S) and Poland. With the addition of The Edinburgh Salmon Company (ESCo) turnover, this will increase beyond £110 million and over 800 employees.

Over the last six years the company has experienced a massive growth in sales from £8.5 million to over £35 million, which has led to a need to expand the current facilities. ESCo is now the sole-supplier of ASDA-branded smoked salmon products to all of its 480 stores.

The new £2 million building is attached to the existing development at the Strathview Business Park in Dingwall and comprises approximately 7,000 square metres of space. Along with state-of-the-art raw fish processing facilities, the development will include two production offices, toilet facilities and a canteen. Additional facilities will include a 63-space car park.

The building has been designed with future expansion in mind and will have the capacity to expand by additional 3-4000 sq metres. Composed using a steel portal frame with insulated profiled cladding, the building also features food-safe panelling for the interior temperature controlled environment.

Sustainable features include low energy evaporators and condensers within the plant and low energy lighting throughout the facility. In addition, a bio-chemical effluent treatment plant will process waste water. This will allow the Edinburgh Salmon company to comply with the regulations set by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), who regularly monitor the site.

The Extension has been designed and project managed by Thomson & Partners – Edinburgh the leading designer of Food Factories in Scotland. The main contractor for the project is McGregor Construction, with Korrie Mechanical & Plumbing Limited responsible for the mechanical side, including the heating & ventilation. SSE Contracting have installed the electrical plant, whilst ACE Refrigeration is responsible for installing the refrigeration plant and ADT are installing the fire protection system. Food Processing Engineering have installed the food safe panelling installation and John Lord Ltd laid the resin flooring.

Alasdair MacIver, Edinburgh Salmon Company, said:

“One of the major challenges that we have experienced during the construction stage is the drainage of the site, which has a relatively high water table. McGregor Construction, due to their knowledge of the area, had no problems dealing with this situation.

“All of the teams are working very well together. It has been a pleasure to work with the various contractors and all potential issues under the management of Thomson & Partners have been dealt with quickly and efficiently. We are particularly delighted to be working with McGregor Construction, who has already built various structures around the business park – including our original building. We have fostered a very good working relationship with the main contractor over the years and look forward to continuing working with them in the future.

“It genuinely has been a relatively plain sailing project – albeit with a couple of bumps along the way – which is all down to the hard work of everyone involved. Our managing director is also something of a taskmaster, which has helped to keep us on the straight and narrow!”

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