Spink invests following M&S business win

Arbroath Smokies producer RR Spink & Sons is investing more than £150,000 in new equipment at its Arbroath factory after picking up new business with Marks & Spencer. This will include new mixing, sealing and checkweighing machinery.

The £6m turnover company, which created 20 new jobs last year with a £1m site extension that doubled its high-care floor space and smoking capacity, is launching nine new products in the spring including three new organic lines using salmon and trout, two new meal centre lines using salmon cutlets and an Isle of Mull crab and prawn filled salmon product.

Marks & Spencer is by far its biggest customer, but the company also has Spink's branded lines in Morrison, Asda and Tesco, said factory general manager Gary Greenwood.

Significant recent growth has come from the Arbroath Smokie - a hot smoked headless and gutted pair of haddocks, which gained protected geographical indication status in 2004, said Greenwood.

However, lines such as hot smoked salmon, smoked trout, smoked maple cured trout and smoked salmon flakes, were also performing well, he said. “We’re always looking at different species and will be bringing in some new ones this year.”

Plans are also in place to move into the foodservice market, he added. A subsidiary of Scot Trout and Salmon, Spink has also launched an online ordering facility on its website in recent months, said Greenwood. “We’ve also started thinking about exporting more seriously again after spending the last few years focusing on UK retailers.