Many jobs at risk as Young’s announces Grimsby factory closure

Around 285 jobs at a Young’s Seafood production site in Grimsby could be at risk, it is being reported today.

The company has said that its factory in Marsden Road in the town is no longer financially sustainable and it is looking at moving operations to a larger factory elsewhere in Grimsby, and to Fraserburgh in Scotland.

Young’s said in a statement to the local Grimsby Telegraph news site : “Following changes in future demands for products produced at our Marsden Road site, the company has explored a number of options to try and maintain production at the site from October 2023.

“It is with regret that we have been unable to find any viable solutions and therefore today are announcing the proposal to move the remaining whitefish processing undertaken at the Marsden Road site to the Humberstone Road site in Grimsby and the smoked processing to their Fraserburgh site in Scotland.”

The statement added: “As a result of these proposed changes, Sofina Foods Europe is sadly proposing to cease production at the Marsden Road site in Grimsby from October 2023. We have taken this decision as producing the remaining whitefish contracts at Marsden Road would no longer be financially sustainable.”

The company said it is now starting a formal consultation process with staff at the Marsden Road site.

Young’s is the UK’s largest seafood producer and, with a workforce of more than 1,700 people, the largest private employer in Grimsby.

In 2018 Young’s closed its salmon factory in Annan, Scotland with the loss of 450 jobs and moved that production to Grimsby.

A year later it cut around 50 jobs at its Macrae site in Livingstone, Edinburgh, but this latest announcement is the first to affect its main Grimsby location for many years.

Over the last few months a number of reports suggest that inflation is hitting seafood sales in the UK, especially at the upper end of the market.