Iceland's Seachill to expand its UK factory

Seachill, one of Grimsby's largest food employers in the United Kingdom, is planning to extend its factory by 2010.The Icelandic owned company has already filed a planning application as well as adding 1,000 square metres to its site on the Great Grimsby Business Park.

However, if approved, the work is unlikely to lead to few - if any- extra jobs but would give the company greater flexibility to help increase production and protect the jobs of the existing 550-strong workforce, according to the company's commercial director Martin King.  The present 6,000 square metre factory is a primary producer of wetfish for the UK retail business, with the supermarket group Tesco one of its largest customers. The company was established in 1998 by a group of former Bluecrest executives and became part of the international Icelandic Seafood group around seven years ago.

One of its sister companies includes Coldwater Seafoods based on the South Humberside Industrial Estate half a mile away and is a major producer of fish based ready meals for the likes of Marks & Spencer. Seafood is one of the few industries which seem to have survived the recession. A number of Scottish firms and at least two other Grimsby companies, Flatfish and Five Star Fish have recently completed major expansion projects. Sales of both frozen and fresh fish and fish products are continuing to rise steadily thanks in large part to the now well established health benefits from eating seafood. More than 6,000 people are still employed locally in various aspects of food production and distribution.