No Catch, the UK’s only fully sustainable and organic cod supplier, has collapsed into administration after its management failed to keep the company afloat.
Administrator Grant Thornton has been appointed to manage the company, which runs 27 organic sea farms in the Shetland Islands.
A number of potential buyers are said to have expressed interest in No Catch, which employs 130 people and also harvests shellfish, sea trout and salmon.
No Catch was founded in the 1980s and in 2005 underwent a £22m management buy-out that was backed by private equity firm Milestone Capital Partners.
The group, which had debt of £40m and turnover of just £3m in 2007, had been trying to find a buyer for a number of months.
Daniel Smith, who is co-leading the administration team at Grant Thornton, said that the start-up funding required had been underestimated.
“Milestone Capital Partners reached its funding limits and attempts to raise further funding were not successful,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“Although the company has started to produce sales, the stock of farmed cod is immature currently, limiting turnover.”
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By Kerstin Kühn
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