Plenty think floundering fish-supply company would be a good catch

GRIMSBY'S Five Star Fish is attracting major interest, according to the administrators overseeing operations there.

As reported, the food service giant was put into the hands of Deloitte after parent company British Seafood hit the rocks.

And potential suitors for the business, which supplies restaurants, pubs, schools, hospitals and other catering operations, are in plentiful supply.

It underlines the high esteem the firm is held in.

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A spokesman for Deloitte said: "There is no set timetable, but we are really encouraged by the number of interested parties we have had for the business.

"We have yet to narrow it down. We are taking everyone quite seriously."

Five Star was founded by Grimsby Town chairman and Conservative ward councillor John Fenty in the early 1990s and was sold to the Really Good Food Company in 2004.

The intervening years saw sales increase by £11-million, putting £15-million on the company's value.

That led to the purchase by London's Billingsgate Market-based British Seafood in 2007 for £35-million.

At the time Mark Holyoake, chief executive of the now-floundering firm, said: "I have admired this business for a number of years and feel that under our ownership the business can move to another level. It has a very exciting future with us."

Before Christmas, a £7-million expansion of the plant on the Great Grimsby Business Park and bordering the A180 entrance to the town, was completed, doubling capacity at the 14-year-old site.

It followed increases in volumes through both organic growth and the acquisition of companies, most recently Lowestoft-based flatfish supplier A Kalkman.

Deloitte was appointed to administer British Seafood following withdrawal of trade credit from the company's bank last month and it is believed the Serious Fraud Office is now investigating.

It is also understood that the collapse may have cost 3i, the listed private equity company which owned more than a quarter stake in the fish giant, about £80-million.

Locally, companies across the sector, from cold storage and logistics, to fish catching and trading, and allied processors in between, are awaiting the outcome with interest.

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