Published: 10 November, 2011

BUYERS from a number of European countries joined the bidding recently for machinery and processing equipment from the collapsed Grimsby company Superior Seafoods.

The company closed its doors in August when it went into receivership with the loss of 60 jobs. The move shocked many people on the fish docks at the time.

The administrators now handling the affairs of the business ordered the disposal of the firm’s equipment. Everything from the fish processing lines to the office collection of historic trawling industry photographs went under the hammer in the auction at the Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire saleroom of industrial auctioneers CJM Asset Management. The reserve value of the equipment was well over £60,000. The sale also included a number of unusual fishing photographs and drawings which were snapped up by collectors of fishing memorabilia.

Auctioneer Paul Cooper from CJM said: “The sale went very well. There was a lot of interest from the food and seafood industry, with bidders from countries like Holland, Denmark and Finland, but this is not unusual when we have sales of this nature. We also had four telephone bidders.”

Superior supplied fresh and frozen seafood to the major supermarket and public house chains, as well as to wholesale markets, restaurants and shops around the country. The machinery and equipment includes all the equipment normally found in a modern fish-processing factory. There were also conveyors, a skinning machine, wrapping, sealing and weigh-check machines plus a range of stainless steel filleting and preparation tables. The factory on the fish docks remains vacant.

Industry Press Release, seafood, Seafood Company, seafood processsor