A top boss at Young’s seafood has now left the company as restructuring of the crisis-hit firms gets underway with employees now preparing for pay-offs.
The firm announced last month that it would begin looking for options for its Fraserburgh site after it lost a lucrative salmon processing contract with supermarket retailer Sainsbury’s.
Up to 250 of the 900 staff at the firm’s Watermill Road plant in the port could be retained following the loss.
However, the company said it would offer an “enhanced exit payment” for staff and is currently in negotiations with union representatives.
Now Wayne Hudson, the firm’s frozen business unit manager, has walked away.
His departure comes as chief executive Pete Ward promotes a “One Young’s” strategy to “facilitate transparency, improve efficiency and drive functional excellence”.
Chief Executive Peter Ward said: “I would like to thank Wayne Hudson for his contribution to the development of our frozen brand over the past two years.”
He added: The new One Young’s board structure will help us to continue to improve our operations, drive functional excellence and efficiency, and provide the best fish and seafood to our customers and consumer.”
A spokeswoman for Young’s could not say if Mr Hudson had left as part of a redundancy deal.
Meanwhile, hundreds of staff in Fraserburgh are no closer to learning of their fate.
Many are hoping a new buyer for the site will come forward and that they will be retained.
No final decision about the future of the Watermill Road factory or job cuts will be made before the end of a formal 45-day consultation period.
Alex Moonan, the union representative for staff at the Fraserburgh plant, revealed that staff felt as if they were in limbo.
He said: “We’re still in negotiations with them, we’re really no further with it.
“We’re still discussing what the redundancy payments will be. We’re in the middle of a lull, because nobody really knows – there’s nothing on the table. It’s ‘what ifs’.
“For now, it’s business as usual.”
An emergency task force was set up by Scottish Government ministers in the wake of the announcement that Young’s operations in both Fraserburgh and Grantown could close.