In a statement issued this afternoon, Coldwater said redundancy terms have been agreed with the workforce and an expected closure date of June 6 has been confirmed.

The meals business at Redditch will be transferred to Coldwater's two Grimsby sites and Coldwater said this will be backed by "significant investment" which will create an improved manufacturing capability together with greater security for Coldwater's 500 employees in Grimsby.

A product transfer plan is underway, along with the preparations to decommission the factory following the closure date.

The company added: "Coldwater's management recognises the tremendous support from all of the Redditch employees over the years and thanks them for their commitment throughout this challenging process."

Coldwater is part of the global Icelandic Group and the closure of the Redditch operation has been on the cards for some time. Meanwhile,serious problems have been mounting up for the Icelandic Group, one of the world's largest seafood producers and an organisation with a number of key operations in Britain.

Icelandic owns Coldwater Seafood and Seachill on the Humber, both supplying key retailers like Marks & Spencer, Tesco and the Icelandic Group with a wide range of fish and value added seafood products. It also has key contracts with a number of Scottish langoustine skippers who supply shellfish to the Humber factories for Marks & Spencer stores nationwide.

Icelandic also has key production sites in Europe (France, Germany and Spain), the United States and in Japan and other parts of Asia, some of them operating at a big loss.

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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