McLelland came to the Scottish Salmon Company through his colleague and former business partner Bill Hazeldean, who was a non-executive director and subsequently chief executive of Lighthouse Caledonia, helping lead it through its darkest phase.

Previously the two had set up and built Macrae Foods from a small producer of roll-mop herring to a £100m company, which they then sold to Young’s, part of multinational food giant Findus.