A fish processing facility in Grimsby employing almost 200 workers is under threat of closure after its owner said Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic had made it too difficult to operate.
Iceland Seafood said the Grimsby site, which previously accounted for 10% of the group’s turnover, was no longer “a strategic fit” after buying the facility in 2018, and would focus on its other facilities. European locations in Spain and Ireland for processing.
He said in a statement: “The investment and merger decision was completed in March 2020, just before the start of Covid-19, and the renovation and installation of the factory was greatly affected by the Covid and the subsequent Brexit along with difficulties in general operations.”.
The fishing industry has for many years played only a marginal role in the UK’s overall economy, but it still occupies an important place in many coastal communities, which have seen unemployment rise as the sector declines.
During the Brexit referendum, some campaigners and MPs said that leaving the EU could revitalize the industry in the UK, and several communities with a strong fishing heritage voted strongly to leave the EU. North East Lincolnshire, which contains Grimsby, voted 69.9% in favor of Brexit, putting it in 10th place among the local authorities with the most leave votes.
Fights over British fishing rights almost derailed the entire UK-EU trade deal at the end of 2020. However, then-prime minister Boris Johnson pushed through a deal that was criticized as a “betrayal” by the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, which it hoped would gain from the UK’s departure.
Bjarni Ármannsson, chief executive of Iceland Seafood, said the company had been affected by a lack of cold storage as businesses stocked up to prepare for possible disruption when the UK leaving the EU, as well as disruptions from Covid-19, such as delays in shipping their cod and haddock. imported from China and Vietnam. “It’s always a combination of what Brexit was, what the pandemic was,” he said.
Ármannsson said the extra paperwork after the UK left the EU had made it difficult to import fish.
“The processes for bringing products into the Southeast Asian country became more complicated,” he said. “The UK market has become more difficult post-Brexit. The UK has become more cumbersome in terms of paperwork.”
The Grimsby facility, which was built by prominent local businessman John Fenty, was acquired by Iceland Seafood UK in 2020 after closing with the loss of nearly 400 jobs. The company reopened and merged it with the Bradford and Grimsby operations.
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Iceland Seafoods, which employs around 1,000 workers across its operations, insisted a sale to secure the site’s future was possible. It has hired Icelandic corporate finance firm MAR Advisors to find a buyer and has had some early-stage approaches.
The company said in a statement: “While it has been concluded that the UK operation is no longer a strategic option for Iceland Seafood, Grimsby’s excellent facilities and strong management team can be a great addition to other companies in the industry.”