A FAMILY owned fishing business has bought a new £750,000 vessel after securing bank funding.

Asteria Fishing Company, which is based at Portree on the Isle of Skye, believes the largest boat will allow it to increase the profitability of each trip it makes.

Alasdair Montgomery and wife Mary run the business along with son Andrew.

It had fished in the North Sea and around the west coast of Scotland for many years with a vessel built in 1996 which had accommodation for four people.

However the family felt it was time for an upgrade to make sure it could keep up with demand for customers even in poorer weather conditions.

They were able to get two base rate loans from Royal Bank of Scotland through the bank's participation in the Funding for Lending scheme to fund the investment.

The larger boat has space for seven people and the business has hired two additional deckhands as a result.

Mr Montgomery said: "Now that we have a much newer, powerful boat, we can go further afield.

"The impact that the boat has had has been huge - we are now bringing in strong catches even when the weather is rough.

"We now expect a 25 per cent increase in earning capacity per trip and expect this to have a strong impact on the business's turnover."

The business has banked with RBS for four decades.

Iain McFee, senior relationship manager with RBS, said: "It's been great to have been able to help Alasdair and the family purchase the new boat, especially as it has had such a clear, positive impact on the business."