Gael Force spinout takes on Dawnfresh trout farms
The remaining trout farming assets of Scottish fish farming business Dawnfresh look set to become showcases for a revolutionary new farming system, being developed by the Gael Force Group.
Salmon farming giant Mowi, which acquired Dawnfresh Farming two years ago, has agreed the sale of the Dawnfresh trout operations to Gael Force, an Inverness-based supplier to the aquaculture and fishing sectors.
Gael Force currently does not farm fish itself, but the company has been developing a semi-closed containment system, SeaQure Farm. A new company, SeaQureFarming Group, has been created by Gael Force founder Stewart Graham to establish a Scottish fish farming operation using the new system.
At the end of last week, it has emerged, SeaQure Farming acquired Dawnfresh Farming from Mowi.
Mowi acquired trout producer Dawnfresh Farming in 2023, about a year after its parent company, Dawnfresh Seafoods, was placed in the hands of administrators. The Dawnfresh processing operations in Uddingston and Arbroath respectively were acquired by Thistle Seafoods and the Associated Seafoods group. The farming operations, unlike the company’s processing business, had been trading profitably.
The former Dawnfresh sites at Loch Etive and Loch Awe are now being used by Mowi to rear salmon smolts, but the SeaQure deal includes the Dawnfresh hatcheries and farm sites at Ardnish and Loch Earn. The Ardnish site, which was used as a test site by Dawnfresh, is likely to be the location for the first SeaQure farm.
The SeaQure system uses “SeaQureWells” to minimise the emission of waste from the pens, as well as protecting the fish from parasites and predators. Gael Force says: “A SeaQureFarm contains and re-processes almost all potential emissions, the system can support the grow out of large biomass without challenging the environment’s capacity to sustainably support farming operations which are otherwise constrained in a traditional open net pen sea farm.
“Due to the nature of the containment and reprocessing of emissions the constraint of maximum allowable farmed biomass determined by emissions is removed as is the need to farm in higher energy sites.”
Gael Force says the SeaQureFarm should be scalable up to 10,000 tonnes and can be located in sheltered, more benign sites, where otherwise a farming operation of viable scale could not be situated.
Staff jobs are secured, statement says
A joint statement said: “The acquisition secures the future of Dawnfresh Farming’s trout farming operations and, importantly, its staff, and is part of SeaQureFarming Group’s long-term strategy to deploy and develop the SeaQureFarm™ semi-closed containment farming system, which is in the advanced stages of development.”
Existing operations and employees will be retained with several additional roles also being created. The deal completed in early April after the required consultation and due diligence, Mowi and SeaQure said.
Stewart Graham, founder and owner of Gael Force Group and SeaQureFarming Group, said: “We are delighted to have agreed this deal with Mowi which will deliver on multiple strategic objectives for us. Firstly, and most importantly, we will secure the jobs and the long-term future of Dawnfresh Farming’s operations and those joining us from Mowi. We know that there is a terrific team at Dawnfresh Farming and Mowi who have been dedicated to successfully running these trout farming operations and we look forward to securing and developing the business.
“Secondly, we will preserve the position of the Dawnfresh product in the market and seek to grow capacity, building lasting long-term supply relationships with existing and new customers alike. Finally, we will be able to develop an opportunity within the Dawnfresh operations to deploy the SeaQureFarming semi-closed containment system technology on our own sites to grow capacity, in advance of us establishing further SeaQureFarming sites and the SeaQureFarm™ system being launched into the wider market.”
Ben Hadfield, Mowi Scotland COO, said: “The acquisition of Dawnfresh Farming by Stewart Graham and SeaQureFarming Group represents an exciting new chapter for the companies, as well as the industry.
“It was important that the Dawnfresh trout farming team would be retained as part of the move, and we are delighted that the new group also has plans to expand. We would like to thank all Dawnfresh Farming and Mowi colleagues for their continued support, and we wish them and the new organisation well for the future.”
A spokesperson for SeaQure Farming said: "This acquisition of Dawnfresh Farming will see SeaQureFarming continue to farm trout only. The sites that form part of the acquisition are the Kinnaird and Frandy hatcheries, the Loch Earn freshwater site and the Ardnish seawater site. SeaQureFarming is pioneering the use of a SeaQureWell™ which is an individual ’pen’ within a SeaQureFarm™ system. It is hoped that the first SeaQureWell™ will be deployed at the Ardnish site next year once the appropriate consenting process is completed. The acquisition secures 20 jobs and two additional senior roles have also been recruited."
Updated 15 April.
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