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TWO of Britain's seafood producing companies have combined revenues of well over £2-Billion, new figures have shown.
The Findus Group which includes Young's and The Seafood Company and is owned by the private equity company Lion Capital, and Birds Eye Iglo, owned by Permira another private equity group, were named by the financial services organisation Deloitte at the weekend as being among Britain's top 100 private companies. The figures reflect the dramatic growth in frozen fish sales in the UK during the past two years.
Findus comes in at number 34 and Birds Eye at number 42 - and both have risen up the charts since the list, published by the Sunday Times, came out last year.
Findus, with annual sales of £1,165 million, says its Young's Admiral's Pie, made with Alaskan Pollack, is the biggest selling ready meal in the UK. An estimated 20 million people eat a Findus Group product every week. Findus employs more than 3,000 people in the UK, mainly at Grimsby where Young's has its head office and in Scotland which is a major producer of salmon products at a number of sites.
Meanwhile, Birds Eye Iglo also continues to grow with annual sales of £1,017 million. Although the company produces frozen vegetables and meat and poultry based meals, fish is till the largest seller, most notably Birds Eye fish fingers. Its 'Simply Fish' range is also growing. Its products sell in Europe through the Iglo brand and the group is now looking at expanding into Turkey and Russia.
Should fisheries be closed during breeding time to allow stocks to reach more sustainable levels?
