Family-owned Buchan firm Thistle Seafoods has netted a multimillion-pound funding package to support future growth.
The Boddam company expects the asset-based working capital agreement from Bank of Scotland (BoS) to help propel it to future trading success, having already achieved a 35% increase in turnover since 2012.
Accounts lodged at Companies House show the business turned over more than £75million last year, up from £71.2million in 2014.
Pre-tax profits for 2015 came in at £1.2million, compared with £1.3million the year before.
Thistle said yesterday its export sales had shot up by 360% since 2012.
Staff numbers have ballooned by 30% over the same period, with the company now employing 450 people.
Managing director Ryan Scatterty said: “The business has gone from strength to strength over the past four years, reaching new domestic and export markets.
“The new asset-based funding package from the Bank of Scotland streamlines our borrowings and provides us with useful headroom to fund future projects as well as the underlying growth of the business.”
BoS mid-markets relationship director Graeme Keen said: “Thistle Seafoods is a well-established, fifth-generation family business and one we are very proud to support.
“It has recorded impressive growth over the last four years and the team is focused on building on this success and expanding the business further both at home and overseas.”
Mr Keen added: “Thistle Seafoods reflects the confidence and ambition recently reported in Bank of Scotland’s fifth annual food and drink report, which strongly suggests that the sector will be able to build on the momentum of recent years.
“Across the Scottish food and drink industry, firms expect to increase their turnover by an average of 24% over the next five years and will continue to take advantage of the good reputation of Scottish produce in international markets.
“Thistle Seafoods continues to be in a strong position to maximise its share of this growing global market.”
Proud to be an independently run family business, Thistle Seafoods has built an enviable reputation across the industry, boasting a number of leading retail and food service customers and producing the best-selling fishcake in the UK.
Thistle manufactures more than 150 products, including what is said to be the best-selling fishcake in the UK.
It has recently moved into new product areas such as gluten-free and dairy-free, responding to changing consumer demand.
