A COUNTY Durham MP says he is “extremely disappointed” that more than 450 North East workers and a further 117 in Cumbria could lose their jobs after their company was taken over by Young’s Seafood.
Easington MP Grahame Morris says he has been trying to arrange a meeting with the management of Grimsby-based Young’s since it bought Cumbrian Seafood out of administration a month ago.
Cumbrian is the biggest employer in Seaham, where the business was headquartered in a hi-tech factory, employing 363 people in the town. The former Cumbrian business also has 112 staff in Whitehaven and 80 at the Border Laird site in Amble.
Young’s, which is based in Grimsby and produces a range of Jamie Oliver fish meals, is consulting with staff on a restructuring plan which could lead to all the jobs at the three former Cumbrian Seafoods site being lost.
Mr Morris said: “My initial hope was that when Cumbrian Seafoods went into administration and Young’s bought it was that the jobs would be secure. That optimism has turned to disappointment.
“It looks as if there is going to be rationalisation in the Young’s group and they now have excess capacity. It’s a bitter blow.”
He said unofficial meetings with workers had raised concerns that Young’s had bought the business to remove the competition.
The Seaham factory received “substantial investment” and Cumbrian had good contracts with a number of supermarkets, the MP said.
He added: “It seems to me it would be sensible to concentrate production on the most modern factory in the group. Seaham is also well-placed in the distribution chain. I am still hoping when they have completed the consultation and evaluated the assets, that there will be a future at Seaham. I have offered whatever assistance I can to Young’s and the management team.”
Young’s chief operating officer Pete Ward said the company would “take as long as necessary” to make the right decision.
“The formal consultation process in Seaham and Whitehaven will be for a minimum of 90 days, and the consultation at Border Laird in Amble will be for a minimum of 30 days, due to the number of employees potentially affected,” he said.
Young’s owner Lion Capital bought Cumbrian’s customer contracts and equipment out of administration on December 5. The new owners have been reviewing the Northern sites since then and Ward stressed that the outcome was not set in stone.
Ward said: “This is the start of a process and no decisions have been made. Over the next few months we will be exploring all possible options for the former Cumbrian Seafoods sites, which could include the integration and servicing of customer contracts by Young’s Seafood Limited and the movement of volume between sites.
“We want to ensure we deliver quality products for our customers in the most effective and efficient way.”
He said the decision was not a reflection on the “committed and skilled teams” at the former Cumbrian Seafoods sites.
But he added: “However, it is clear from the fact that the business went into administration that the current business model is not viable.
“We continue to be focused on fulfilling customer contracts and talking, in detail, with the employees about options for the future.”
The Seaham factory currently carries out a range of fish and seafood processing, Whitehaven concentrates on fish smoking and processing and the Border Laird site in Amble processes langoustines and makes fishcakes.
