The latest order for fish farm pens secured by Argyll firm Fusion Marine takes the total investment by one of its customers, Cooke Aquaculture Scotland (CAS), to nearly £1million in the past eight months.
Fusion Marine, based at Barcaldine, near Oban, said yesterday it was to supply four new Triton 400 pens and refurbish three Oceanflex pens for Canadian-owned CAS and its salmon sites on Unst and Yell in Shetland.
It follows an order last summer for 12 new Triton 450 pens and an upgrade to four Oceanflex pens.
Fusion Marine director Iain Forbes said: “We have forged an excellent relationship with Cooke Aquaculture Scotland, which has benefited businesses in our home area in Argyll, as well as the Northern Isles.”
CAS managing director Colin Blair said: “These new orders are all about standardising our fish farming systems to the highest possible level and where containment is our number one priority.
“We are particularly pleased that we have been able to place these orders with a Scottish manufacturing company, which underlines the importance of salmon farming to our country’s economy and in supporting jobs in fragile rural communities.”
Cooke Aquaculture is a family-owned and managed company with operations in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Maine, Chile, Spain and Scotland as well as sales people in major centres in the US and Canada.
Through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, the group processes and sells 115,000 tonnes – whole fish equivalent – of Atlantic salmon and 20,000 tonnes of sea bass and sea bream each year. Annual sales are valued at nearly £500million.