While it remained unclear precisely how many jobs could be lost in Grimsby, Unite regional officer Dave Monaghan said: “This is extremely serious and very worrying news for the workforce at Marsden Road and also for the local economy.”
Young’s Seafood operates three plants in Grimsby; employing a total of 2,000 workers.
Announcing the lost contract yesterday (June 23), the firm said it would investigate “the business implications of the lost contract” and pledged to explore new business opportunities.
‘Loss of the contract’
“The company is looking to obtain new contracts to fill the void left by the loss of the contract to prepare, smoke, freeze and deliver salmon to Sainsbury’s,” said Monaghan.
“We will be working closely with management in the days and weeks to come to mitigate any job losses. At present, we can’t put a figure on the number of job losses, if any. The worst case scenario would be in the region of 330 jobs lost.”
But the total number of jobs lost at the Grimbsy plant and the firm’s sister facility at Fraserburgh, could reach nearly double the union’s prediction, FoodManufacture.co.uk understands. Workers at both sites are understood to be dedicated to fulfilling the cancelled Sainsbury’s salmon contract.
Meanwhile, Young’s lost the contract to a new supplier who was able to offer dedicated production facilities.
‘Offered to deal directly’
How Young's lost out?
“Unite understands that the Norwegian company, Marine Harvest, which provides the farmed salmon from Scotland to Young’s Seafood in Grimsby, has offered to deal directly with Sainsbury’s.”
- Dave Monaghan, Unite
“Unite understands that the Norwegian company, Marine Harvest, which provides the farmed salmon from Scotland to Young’s Seafood in Grimsby, has offered to deal directly with Sainsbury’s,” said Monaghan.
“We will be asking Sainsbury’s if Marine Harvest has the ability to provide the processed salmon directly to Sainsbury’s. Young’s Seafood’s facilities in Grimsby are first class and top of the range.”
A spokeswoman for the UK's third-largest supermarket confirmed, as a result of a supplier tender, it had given advance notice to Young’s Seafood that it would no longer pack and process salmon products for the retailer.
“Marine Harvest, our Scottish farmed salmon supplier, has acquired this business which will be carried out at its new factory in Rosyth, Scotland,” said the spokeswoman. “However Young’s will continue to supply us with fish, including cod and haddock.”
Unite acknowledged the contract loss could also impact on the Young’s Seafood plant in Fraserburgh but said it had no members at the Aberdeenshire site.
Read more about Young's Seafood's reaction to losing the Sainsbury contract here.