MACDUFF Shellfish has acquired scallop fishing firm Scott Trawlers in a deal thought to be worth more than £10 million.
Dumfries-based Scott Trawlers employs 50 people and runs five vessels responsible for around 15% of UK scallop landings.
It also has three refrigerated lorries and an engineering arm focused on products for scallop fishermen.
The acquisition, backed by Royal Bank of Scotland, is the first time Macduff has purchased an entire fleet of fishing vessels.
Andy Scott, of Scott Trawlers, said: "The two businesses are a great fit and that was very important to me as I looked for ways in which I could still operate and grow the business but in partnership with a like-minded operation.
"We have always been at the forefront of the scallop sector and this deal enables us to bring forward innovation from the catch through to the end product."
Euan Beaton, chairman of Macduff, has ambitious growth plans.
He said: "This significant deal enables us to expand our scallop business, allows us to have a full chain of custody from the sea to the customer, and consolidates a solid 15-year relationship between the two businesses.
"This is a really exciting time in Macduff Shellfish's continued expansion. Over the last 10 years we've quadrupled the business.
"In the next five years I'd like us to double it again through acquisition deals such as this and through organic growth, including diversifying into other shellfish categories."
Macduff, which has its headquarters in Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire, reported a £38m turnover in the 12 months to March 31, 2011.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article