Hans J Marter

17 January, 2006

CONSULTANTS are to examine Shetland Smokehouse with a view to maximising the company's sales and marketing performance.

The company, based in the village of Skeld, has just received confirmation of an £18,000 grant from Shetland Enterprise to conduct a business review.

In 2003, pelagic processor Shetland Catch bought the family owned business and planned to use its expertise to enter the secondary processing market.

Yesterday, Catch managing director Derek Leask said Shetland Smokehouse had been experiencing difficult trading conditions.

Mr Leak said: "The aim is to take the Smokehouse to a higher level so that it can be viable to produce high quality smoked salmon product.

"Shetland Smokehouse is already serving this high quality market and it is a recognised brand. What is now needed to get help in sales and marketing. We want to maximise what is already there."

Manager of Shetland Smokehouse, Dave Hammond, added that the first step in that process was to hire in a professional consultancy business to appraise the company's strategy.

The proposal, he said, was to take the £1 million business to the next stage where it could have a turnover of £5 million.

Mr Hammond said: "Shetland Catch instigated all this as part of their acquisition. We are now looking at a wider range of products and investments into new machinery."

Six other projects also received notification of Shetland Enterprise grant assistance yesterday (Monday). They are:

- J Watt & Son, £3,730 towards replacement of fuel pumps in Reawick;
- Bulter & Mulhern, £1,864 for a company training and development plan;
- Shetland Farm Dairies, £563 also for a training and development plan;
- Shetland College, £6,000 towards the costs for a north isles community lecturer post;
- Shetland Textile Museum, £1,550 towards the Shetland Women in Wartime research project;
- and almost £35,000 for a research project into trows by Shetland Folklore Development Group.