
Heart of the Community
When it comes to helping local good causes, who better to tell us where our support will make most difference than our communities themselves.
One of the biggest ways we can give back to Scotland’s remote and rural communities is to ‘buy local’ wherever we can.
In other words, if we can buy goods or services of the kind and quality we want, in the timescale we need, from a Scottish supplier then we’ll make a point of doing so – a policy we introduced many years ago.
It now amounts to an annual boost in excess of £100m shared amongst over 700 local businesses, the majority of them small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Everyone from specialist feed companies, marine engineers, surveyors, equipment manufacturers, logistics experts and clothing suppliers, to ferry companies, hotels, family-run B&Bs and local convenience stores.
This, in turn, is enabling the same businesses to maintain and create local jobs, as well as develop new products, technologies and services.
The economic benefit to Scotland doesn’t stop there. Our own spend with local suppliers creates, in turn, onward spend with many of our suppliers going on to spend with other businesses local to them.
The more remote the community, the more keenly the impact can be felt.
“Hauliers, B&Bs, ferry travel, generators, welfare units and sundries – each and every pen we install for Scottish Sea Farms generates business both for the area local to us and the remote communities in which we work. Often, this is for months at a time during winter when revenue from tourism is traditionally lower.” Gael Force Marine, Oban
It’s not just companies located in the aquaculture heartland of Scotland’s Highlands and Islands that stand to benefit.
We work with businesses located the length and breadth of Scotland: from Shetland and Orkney in the north, to Ayrshire in the south west; and from Aberdeen in the east to Mull on the west coast.
“Few people would connect Ayrshire with aquaculture, yet the positive impact of the industry is keenly felt, with Scottish Sea Farms’ contracts helping protect 63 jobs in an area of otherwise high unemployment – not forgetting the onward spend within the local community.” W&J Knox, Kilbirnie, Ayrshire
Sector-wide, the Scottish Salmon Farming Economic Report (2018), commissioned by the Scottish Salmon Producer’s Organisation, estimates that the country’s salmon farmers contribute £558m to the national economy in GVA and spends a total of £390m on local suppliers and services.