Meat and poultry multinational Towers Thompson is planning to establish a fish business using former British Seafood staff.

The £190m-turnover import, export and distribution company, which is based in Hertfordshire, has held ambitions to start up a UK seafood business for the last couple of years.

"The unexpected collapse of British Seafood has presented us with an opportunity to set up a UK seafood division," said project manager Nicola Thompson. "As a result, we are talking to key personnel in the various British Seafood subsidiary companies with a view to engaging a team of up to 10 people to open a UK-based seafood division."

The collapse of British Seafood had left a wealth of talent looking for employment, she said, but stressed that Towers Thompson had not purchased former British Seafood subsidiary Bloomsbury International and had no intention to. 

The company would not be looking to make any acquisitions in the seafood sector and instead would focus on organic growth, she added. "We are looking to build up ourselves. We haven't bought any of the £35m stock from the insolvent company."

Towers Thompson has offices in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South America and Spain and bought German company Rassau Seafood three years ago from Maple Leaf Toronto. "Rassau Seafood has proved a successful acquisition and as a consequence the management decided some time ago to open a similar operation here in the UK," said Thompson.

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