South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth has said that Young’s Seafood should handover their Pinney’s Site on Stapleton Road, Annan rather than profit from any sale.

It comes as Young’s Seafood posted Profits before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) of £23million for last year. An increase of 2.7% from the previous year.

Young’s Seafood confirmed the closure of their Pinney’s factory in Annan in June last year following a 45 day consultation with employees and trade unions. Approximately 700 permanent, agency and seasonal workers lost their jobs as a result of the closure.

The Stapleton Road Site is still up for sale and calls have been made by other politicians for the taxpayer to pick up the bill for buying the site from the company. However, Colin Smyth MSP believes that Young’s Seafood should hand the site over to allow for the factory to be demolished which could make it more attractive to new enterprises and help create more jobs, especially if new purpose built units were built.

South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth said, “Young’s Seafood showed utter contempt for the Pinneys workforce. Rather than show any loyalty to a community who showed loyalty to them, the company did little to try to turn Pinney’s around but just cast it aside. This reinforces my view that Young’s should not profit from any sale of the Pinneys factory but for once do the right thing for the community and hand the factory over. That way we could get on with demolishing the site and make it more suitable for new companies to be based at their custom built facilities. The factory is now clearly of no use to the company and getting rid of it now is not only the right thing to do but would save them a huge business rates bill. These profits show that Young’s could easily afford this small act of corporate and social responsibility.”

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