vesting £933,000 and plans to create 33 new jobs with support from Invest Northern Ireland’s Jobs Fund. The company, based at Kilkeel Harbour, is expanding its processing operations for whole tail scampi for supply to Whitby Seafoods, its parent company in North Yorkshire, England.The new jobs will be provided over the next two years. Invest NI has offered support of £99,000 for the 33 new posts through the Jobs Fund.
John Hood, Invest NI Food and Tourism Director, says: “This is a very significant and strategic investment by Whitby which will strengthen the position of Kilkeel Seafoods within the wider business and is being made because of the quality of products processed at the port from scampi sourced from local and Irish trawlers. The consolidation of scampi processing at Kilkeel is, therefore, a very important boost for the local fishing industry and the wider economy of the County Down coastal region, the centre of a fish processing industry in Northern Ireland.”
Kilkeel Seafood currently employs 140 people directly in Northern Ireland’s principal fishing port.
Daniel Whittle, managing director of Kilkeel Seafoods, says: “The decision to expand scampi shelling and processing operations in Kilkeel is the outcome of a strategic decision by the group to concentrate resources on supplying existing and potential customers, both retail and foodservice, with scampi sourced from UK and Irish trawlers and processed within our operations, especially here at Kilkeel.”
He adds: “The investment being undertaken in our operations in Kilkeel positions us for faster growth within Whitby Seafoods as the group responds to the developing market demand for locally sourced food.”
Kilkeel Seafoods was formed in 2011 when Whitby acquired Rockall Seafoods, another local scampi producer. This followed Whitby’s earlier acquisition of Middleton Seafoods, in 1997, and made the new company the biggest shelling and processing of whole tail scampi in the UK. Whitby employs 140 people in North Yorkshire.
