A north-east fish factory received a boost last night after it was announced that a supermarket retailer would process its salmon in Fraserburgh.
Young’s Seafood Ltd’s plant on Watermill Road looked as if it would close last year when the firm announced that it had lost a lucrative processing contract with Sainsbury’s.
But after axing hundreds of jobs, the plant was able to remain open.
Now, budget supermarket Aldi has transferred some of its salmon processing from rival firm Marine Harvest – which took on Sainsbury’s contract from Young’s last year – to the Fraserburgh plant.
The move, almost a reversal of fortunes from last year, will mean that all of Aldi’s chilled salmon products which are processed in Rosyth will be transferred to Young’s factories.
It will leave Marine Harvest’s Rosyth plant primarily processing smoked and chilled products for Sainbury’s.
Last night, a spokeswoman for Young’s declined to comment on what the contract would mean for the long-term future of Fraserburgh but confirmed Aldi had moved some of its production to the firm.
It is understood that smoked products will be processed at Watermill Road, where about 600 people lost their jobs.
Representatives of Aldi were unavailable to comment.
Aldi divides its UK salmon business into two halves, which includes natural portions and salmon and sauce products.
The other half is being handled by Norwegian firm Hofseth International.
Following last year’s job losses in Fraserburgh, a Scottish Government task force was created to help find new jobs for redundant workers.
Speaking at last month’s meeting of the group, Business Minister Fergus Ewing said a £1million funding package for regeneration in the town would help support smaller businesses and create new jobs.
Aberdeenshire Council has also worked with local people following the crisis and is supporting a new bus service to make it easier for people to commute to out of town jobs.
“We will continue to work in partnership to support the economic regeneration of the area,” said council co-leader Richard Thomson.