North-east seafood processor Macduff Shellfish said yesterday it had snapped up a shellfish trading business and four scallop fishing vessels from the Exeter-based Greendale Group.
Mintlaw-based Macduff added it would use the acquisition, which was for an undisclosed sum, to gain a foothold in south-west England.
The 11-strong shore based shellfish team at the Greendale Group’s shellfish trading division will transfer to Macduff, joining around 400 other employees throughout the UK.
In addition, the 24 fishers operating the four scallop fishing vessels will join the Macduff fleet’s existing team of 110 and bring its total number of scallop vessels to 14.
Macduff chairman Euan Beaton said: “The acquisition is a really exciting opportunity for our business for three key reasons – it sees the culmination of a 10-year trading relationship with the Greendale Group, it expands our scallop fishing fleet by 40% and it allows us the opportunity to build on the solid relationship that already exist with fishermen in the south-west of England.
Macduff Shellfish was set up in 1985 in Macduff, buying and selling live shellfish direct from the fishermen for freight to Europe. The factory in Mintlaw was bought in 1996 as the company diversified from chilled into frozen shellfish.