Management and staff at Arbroath smoked fish specialists R R Spink are celebrating securing two contracts worth a total of £4.5 million in the first year.
The new contracts represent 50% increase in turnover for the company, which will shortly be celebrating its centenary.
Two newly-developed products for a major UK retailer dominate the new business, and are expected to deliver sales worth £3.5 million to Spinks, while creating 30 jobs at the firm’s factory in the Kirkton Industrial Estate.
The first is a chilled, added-value hot smoked salmon product using ‘vacuum skin’ packaging system the company pioneered.
An additional £1 million of turnover will come from the sale of three new chilled trout products a pate, butterfly fillets with lemon, parsley and black pepper, and portions of trout with prawns, chilli and coriander.
To manufacture the new products, Spinks has spent £200,000 on new processing equipment, including an additional vacuum skin packing machine.
A further £100,000 has been invested in improving production lines to handle the new trout products.
R R Spink, which is part of the Dawnfresh Seafoods group of companies, has received financial support from Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Executive to enable the company to drive forward the developments.
Factory director Bob Spink, who is also a member of Angus Council, said, “This raft of new ideas-and there are many more in the pipeline demonstrates that Spinks is a leading innovator in the smoked seafood sector and that is very good news for Angus.”