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SHETLAND-BASED organic cod farm No Catch is set to be bought out of administration this week.
Speaking to FISHupdate.com today, administrator Grant Thornton confirmed it is in "advanced negotiations" with a number of parties.
Robert Caven of Grant Thornton said a deal is expected to be struck this week.
According to media reports, it is understood that a number of Norwegian companies already operating in the fish-farming sector are interested in buying the assets, and it is unlikely that the company will be sold as a whole.
No Catch ran out of cash on February 20, with debts amounting to almost £41 million. At least 28 people have been made redundant since.
While the company is continuing to trade, due to the amount of cod in the cages needing to be harvested, its Scalloway processing plant has stopped filleting the fish. It is now being "de-headed" and then sold on a "wholesale basis to a series of different parties".
No Catch is the UK's first and only producer of organic farmed cod. The firm employed 130 people and owns 27 fish cages at 12 locations around the isles where it grows organic cod, salmon, sea trout and mussels.
The company set out to revolutionise the aquaculture industry and produce 30,000 tonnes of organic cod by 2012 with the help of finance from venture capitalists Milestone Capital Partners Limited and Icelandic bank Kaupthing, Singer & Friedlander.
No Catch's highly successful marketing and media campaign saw it receive coverage in publications including The Times, BBC Good Food Magazine, and even glossy society magazine Tatler. It also gained valuable airtime on TV shows including Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word.
The company's cod products won 14 awards for their taste, environmental and fish welfare friendly credentials. In addition to selling its products in UK and European supermarkets, No Catch entered the Japanese sushi market last November thanks to an exclusive order from London-based food bar Tsuru.
Former director, Karol Rzepkowski, reportedly told The Times on Saturday the move to take the company into administration had destroyed the brand at a time when the firm was growing and its product increasingly recognised.
Blaming the banks for putting the firm into administration, he said: “This would have been the first year we broke even. We were on the verge of making something of this, now the company will be split up and sold.”
www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.
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