Skretting will move its Ireland operations to England and Scotland. (Photo: Stock File/FIS)

Skretting closes fish feed facility

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Thursday, September 09, 2010, 03:00 (GMT + 9)

Skretting Ireland has begun a consultation period into the cessation of production in the near future at Westport and the move of the feed production for the Irish market to the firm‘s manufacturing plants in the UK.

This will cause 22 job losses in Westport and some others in joint UK-based services.

Skretting said it will work closely with said employees to support them during this period.

Production in the town is not practical for the firm anymore, said Skretting’s Managing Director Anthony Murphy. He told that operating costs in the Mayo town were almost double that of any of the company’s other plants.

In the future, fish feed for the Irish market will be produced in company plants located in Scotland and England.

Local Fine Gael Deputy Michael Ring lamented the news, Mayo News reports.

“I understand the company will cease production by Christmas. I am deeply sorry to hear of the loss of these jobs for both the staff and their families. Every effort should be made to assist these employees in finding alternative work or to obtain retraining,” he stated.

“This is another hit to Westport town and its surrounding areas. The loss of any jobs, no matter how small, will come as a hammer blow to the economy of the town,” Ring added.

The Deputy called on the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to maximise their efforts to attempt to move investment to Westport to help create sustainable employment for the locality’s denizens.

“The local Business and Technology Park in Westport is under utilised and other potential investors need to be attracted to locate there,” Ring said.

Skretting is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nutreco feed group, which is listed on the stock exchange in the Netherlands. It produces 1.3 million tonnes of fish-feed annually. Skretting has approximately 1,300 employees in eleven countries.

The company said it remains fully committed to the Irish aquaculture industry as it has been for more than two decades, and that it will continue to supply and support the industry from its UK operations.

Skretting is Nutreco’s Aquaculture Division, which includes the three fish feed Business Units (BU) -- BU Skretting Americas, BU Skretting Southern Europe and BU Skretting Northern Europe, Japan & Australia.

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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