Salmon farmers soar in top firms list

SCOTLAND’S salmon companies have been recognised among the country’s top performing firms, with several leading producers moving up in an annual league table of businesses.
Mowi Scotland (formerly Marine Harvest Scotland) moves up 12 places to rank 31st in Scottish Business Insider’s Top 500 (2019) table, published this month.
Mowi’s value-added processing business, based in Rosyth, also showed a significant jump from the previous year’s rankings – up 248 spots to 116.
And Scottish Sea Farms moved up one place to reach 48th, the Scottish Salmon Company was 63rd (up from 366), and Loch Duart made the list for the first time, entering at 277th place.
Mowi managing director Ben Hadfield said: ‘We are pleased to be recognised amongst other major employers and businesses so integral to the economy and social fabric of Scotland.
‘Perhaps even more impressive, and often forgotten, is that most of our economic activity takes place in some of the most remote regions of Scotland’s Islands and Highlands.’
Mowi Scotland employs 1,250 people within its vertically integrated business that includes feed milling, farming, processing and sales.
Bertil Buysse, managing director for Mowi Value-Added Products UK, welcomed news of the Rosyth plant’s success.
‘Since opening our doors in 2015, we have seen our business performance grow year after year.
‘The last year saw our fresh salmon productivity increase 15 per cent over 2017. We’re currently supplying product to Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Lidl from our Rosyth plant and will be pursuing additional supply opportunities in 2019.’
Other aquaculture companies in the list include feed producer Ewos, which was ranked 73rd (up from 113), Farne Salmon, a processor, which was ranked at 176th (up from 184), and AquaScot, place at 284th (up from 299).
To qualify for The Scottish Business Insider’s Top 500, companies must be headquartered in Scotland or be a substantial subsidiary of a foreign owned company with its financial results published separately and have a turnover of more than £20 million.
Each company is ranked firstly by turnover, then profit before the rankings are combined, divided by two and weighted by turnover.