Cooke Scotland reports revenue up but profits under pressure

Cooke Scotland saw its sales rise by 17% last year, but any hope of improved profits from that were cancelled out by higher production costs.

These included increased material and labour costs, which were the main challenges in what was an exceptionally inflationary year.

The company said turnover last year totalled £217m, but pointed out that the volumes sold were relatively flat, with the higher revenues mainly due to record salmon prices last year.

While sales were up by 17%, the cost of producing those sales rose by 25% to £165m.

Net profit after tax fell by 23% from £27.5m in 2022 to £21.2m last year. Much of the reason for this was down to high interest rates which adversely affected both businesses and consumers  throughout most of last year.

Cooke said the higher interest rates cost the company an extra £3.6m in 2023 plus an additional £1.8m in foreign exchange costs.

It also said the increase in raw material and utility costs would have an impact on the cost of feed purchased through the group company, Northeast Nutrition Scotland Ltd, adding that feed is one of its main costs.

It also pointed out that its financial performance is significantly affected by market prices which are subject to fluctuations, while biological problems, jellyfish and winter storms are now becoming an increasing risk.

Cooke Aquaculture Scotland – now rebranded as “Cooke Scotland” – was established in 2014 after Cooke acquired a series of seawater and freshwater assets in Orkney, Shetland and the UK mainland.

A year later it strengthened its Scottish operations with the acquisition of salmon farming operations in Yell, Shetland. It now employs almost 400 people in Scotland.