A smokehouse on South Uist will reopen and its famous brand of smoked salmon revived, after the business was bought by one of its previous managers amidst fears it could move the mainland.
The business at Lochcarnan was closed in April with the loss of seven jobs. But Iain MacRury, its former production manager who lives locally, has bought the business from previous owners Loch Duart Ltd.
He will restart the business under its original name Salar Smokehouse and its main product will be its famous Flaky Salmon, a hot smoked salmon, smoked in a unique kiln using a closely guarded recipe. There will be six jobs with five being filled staff who were made redundant in the spring.
Mr MacRury said "Salar will be open for business shortly. We plan to foster local trade and home delivery customers. Local sales have traditionally been very strong and there are home delivery customers ready to order - this will allow us to build on a solid base for the future.
"I would like to thank Loch Duart for two things, firstly, helping me bring this deal to completion and secondly, for turning away other offers enabling this iconic business to be retained locally within the community."
The Managing Director of Loch Duart, Alban Denton, added, "As local salmon farmers and former owners of the Smokehouse, we had invested a great deal of effort into keeping this business operating within the South Uist community. Loch Duart is still strongly committed to business within the Hebrides and continues to employ twenty-two full time members of staff in its fish farming operations on North and South Uist. We're delighted to sell the Smokehouse to a buyer in South Uist as we had feared that other potential buyers might have taken the brand and process to the mainland".
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