One of the trout farms Mowi acquired from Dawnfresh Farming.
Photo: Mowi Scotland.
Scotland-based SeaQureFarming Group has announced the acquisition of the remaining trout farming assets of Dawnfresh Farming, which Mowi has not integrated into its salmon farming operations in Scotland. The terms of the sale include not only the maintenance of trout production at these sites but also the jobs. The now-announced deal was completed in early April.
The acquisition is part of SeaQureFarming Group's development plans. The Inverness-based company has been set up specifically to establish a fish farming operation in Scotland using Gael Force Group's SeaQureFarm™ semi-closed containment farming system. At the helm is the Group's founder and CEO, Stewart Graham.
The new company's long-term strategy is to utilize Dawnfresh Farming's trout farming operations to implement and develop its SeaQureFarm™ concept, which is in the advanced stages of development.
Designed to control emissions and incoming biological threats while recovering deposition, thus turning a waste problem into an energy solution, the SeaQureFarm™ system can integrate existing equipment and technology while becoming the next generation of farming technology and equipment.
Now, as SeaQureFarming founder and owner Stewart Graham explained, the acquisition of Dawnfresh Farming's trout farming assets from Mowi provides them with a unique proving ground to test this new system. "We are delighted to have agreed this deal with Mowi which will deliver on multiple strategic objectives for us," he said.
"Firstly, and most importantly, we will secure the jobs and the long-term future of Dawnfresh Farming's operations and those joining us from Mowi," Graham continued. "We know that there is a terrific team at Dawnfresh Farming and Mowi who have been dedicated to successfully running these trout farming operations and we look forward to securing and developing the business."
"Secondly, we will preserve the position of the Dawnfresh product in the market and seek to grow capacity, building lasting long-term supply relationships with existing and new customers alike," the founder and owner of Gael Force Group and SeaQureFarming Group added.
"Finally, we will be able to develop an opportunity within the Dawnfresh operations to deploy the SeaQureFarming semi-closed containment system technology on our own sites to grow capacity, in advance of us establishing further SeaQureFarming sites and the SeaQureFarm™ system being launched into the wider market," he concluded.
In addition to serving the future development of SeaQureFarming Group and its sustainable farm systems, as mentioned above, the Mowi's assets sale also secures the future of Dawnfresh Farming's trout farming operations, and, as SeaQureFarming founder and owner highlighted, more importantly, its staff.
Mowi Scotland COO Ben Hadfield, who has also held the position of Director of Dawnfresh Farming since February 2023, also spoke along the same lines. "The acquisition of Dawnfresh Farming by Stewart Graham and SeaQureFarming Group represents an exciting new chapter for the companies, as well as the industry," he said.
"It was important that the Dawnfresh trout farming team would be retained as part of the move, and we are delighted that the new group also has plans to expand. We would like to thank all Dawnfresh Farming and Mowi colleagues for their continued support, and we wish them and the new organisation well for the future," Hadfield added.
It should be recalled that when Mowi acquired Dawnfresh Farming, it saved from closure seven trout farms and five hatcheries across Scotland and Northern Ireland, hitherto doomed to closure after the previous owner, Dawnfresh Seafoods, had filed for bankruptcy a year earlier.
The takeover then secured 67 rural jobs, including farms located at Loch Awe, Loch Earn, Glen Devon, and Kinnaird near Brechin. Thereafter, Mowi has been integrating a number of these assets into its salmon farming operations, although not all of them, and it is the remaining ones that have now been sold to SeaQureFarming Group.
Just now, in April, one such integration of Mowi Scotland salmon operations at former Dawnfresh Farming sites will be completed. After being unable to agree on a lease extension at Loch Arkaig - one of Mowi Scotland's oldest freshwater sites where it has farmed for more than 35 years - the activity has been moved to Loch Awe, some 92.5 miles (149 km approx.) south. There, production will be split between two former trout farming sites, Tervine and Braevallich.
