100 jobs may go at Marine Harvest

The news was given at a meeting with staff representatives who were told the company was making changes to its operations in order to make the business more efficient and sustainable.

Ben Hadfield, Managing Director of Marine Harvest Scotland and global Feed Director explained: “We will be sorry to see staff leaving as we have a highly skilled and talented team here at Marine Harvest Scotland.

“However, the industry is moving at a fast pace and fish farming is in a very different place today from where it was ten or even five years ago.

“We have to ensure the business is sustainable and is fit to meet the challenges we face moving forward.

“By taking this action now we can be more certain of maintaining jobs in the future.”

The company has issued a 30 day notice and will now enter a period of consultation with staff representatives about which posts will be affected.

The restructuring will affect jobs in different departments across all the regions.

Marine Harvest has farm operations situated across the Western Isles, Highlands and Argyll.

Live fish are harvested at Mallaig and processed at the Blar Mhor processing plant in Fort William. The company has offices at Fort William and Rosyth.

The processing plant at Rosyth is not affected by this announcement as it is part of the Marine Harvest Consumer Products division and not Marine Harvest Scotland.

Plans to create a feed plant in Scotland will continue as part of the restructuring of the business as part of the drive to make the company more efficient and sustainable.

The redundancies will not have an effect on forecasted volumes for 2016.

The company is contacting local agencies and politicians and will do everything it can to assist staff in gaining new employment.