LOCH DUART FILES ACCOUNTS

Loch Duart files accounts for 12 months ended 31st March 2019

Loch Duart Limited, the independent salmon farming company based in Sutherland and the Hebrides, has filed its accounts for 2018/2019.

2018 /19
Turnover: £34.6m (2017/18: £42.4m)
Pre-tax Profit: £1.1m (2017/18: £2.6m)

2018/19 Performance
Loch Duart continued to invest heavily in research and development to improve its strong aquaculture farming track record – specifically, investment in farming infrastructure and people development.

Now in its 20th year, Loch Duart continues to record a highly creditable environmental performance in its small-scale farming methodology. Highly innovative solutions were invested in to face the gill health challenge – for the next year and future years.

During 2018/19 increasing gill health challenges – exacerbated by the long hot summer of 2018, with negligible rainfall – affected the performance at one of its farm sites in particular. This impacted turnover for the financial year.

Reduced pre-tax profits reflect this and budgeted-for, reduced harvest volumes which were a natural consequence of stocking plans made to place the company in a better position to grow its volume in future years, whilst maintaining the standards of welfare and quality which customers have come to value in the brand.

The company is delighted that the commitment of the staff to overcome the challenging summer of 2018 has allowed it to pay a company-wide bonus again, albeit smaller than the prior year.

2019
The business has traded profitably in 2019 and is benefiting from the changes implemented in the prior financial year.