One of Scotland’s richest men has been accused of leaving a cancer victim relying on a food bank after his fish processing plant was plunged into administration.
Dad-of-two Graham MacPherson, who has been fighting leukaemia, is among 200 workers facing financial ruin after aristocrat Alastair Salvesen’s Dawnfresh factory in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, was folded.
Salvesen, who had an estimated wealth of £1billion in 2015, is in majority control of the company and accounts show senior management have taken home over £6million since 2017 despite claiming significant losses.
Questions have also been asked about artwork which was removed from the walls of his office before the administration started. It is unknown if this was personal or company property.
Other parts of the multinational business, which has received taxpayer funded support, continue to operate successfully and are being sold off.
But Graham, 48, and partner Mary Kirwan, 51, from Motherwell, said they will not have enough money to eat if their fears are realised that the company won’t make redundancy payments or honour owed holiday pay as a result of going bust.
Graham, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in September 2020, worked for the firm for 14 years.
He said: “These people are completely heartless. You are talking about one of the richest people in Scotland at the head of this company, yet this happens to workers who have served him for decades. It is absolutely disgusting.
“They always treated the staff terribly so I am not particularly surprised by the way it has ended. Most of us were on around minimum wage.
“I was diagnosed with cancer, which is now thankfully in remission, and as a result of that I was due holiday pay that had accrued while I was off sick.
“When I asked for it in January they told me it would get paid with my redundancy settlement because they factory was getting wound down and the work moved to Arbroath.
“But I won’t get a penny of that cash from the company now because it is in administration. The workers are getting completely shafted, we won’t even get redundancy pay-outs unless we can get something from the government.
“We are now going to have to use a food bank and apply for crisis loans while looking for new jobs.”
Mary said: “We have friends and family and so hopefully we will get through this but we are looking at using food banks at a time when the cost of everything is going through the roof.
“The last couple of years have been really hard, and it feels like it is just going to get worse now, though at least Graham’s cancer is in remission.
“I don’t think these people realise that when they do things like this it is a whole household that suffers, not just one individual.
"We had hoped that at least we would have decent payoffs given all the years of service – you would think the loyalty would have stood for something, but it doesn’t.”
The firm was one of the UK’s biggest suppliers to supermarkets despite claiming 17 years of losses in accounts and six fish farms which continue to operate and are also up for sale via administrators.
Accounts show that between 2017 and 2020 over £6.5million was paid out to “key management”.
The company report for 2020 – the last published – gives details of more than £12million worth of “related party transactions” involving “persons with control, joint control or significant influence over the group”.
Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Uddingston, the business was majority-owned by the family of Alastair Salvesen.
He is named as the person with significant control at Companies House with a personal shareholding of over 75 per cent of shares.
The company’s Dawnfresh Seafoods division, which operates seven fish farms across Scotland and Northern Ireland, will continue trading solvently and is being put up for sale. It employs a total of 58 people.
Meanwhile, the Arbroath processing plant has been sold to Buckie-based smoked salmon producer Associated Seafoods, a subsidiary of Lossie Seafoods.
The deal will include the transfer of all 249 staff and create an £85million turnover business.
Willie Brennan, a union rep at Dawnfresh, said: “Alastair Salvesen is one of the richest men in Scotland and yet he is now walking away leaving hundreds of low paid workers high and dry, it is a disgrace.
“He was last seen at the company offices loading artwork from the wall in his office into the back of his car, I think that he clearly cares about paintings more than people.”
Uddingston employees last year received letters promising generous redundancy payments if they worked until this summer, when the factory would be wound down.
But they have now been left unemployed and without any compensation from the company, having to wait up to six weeks in the hope of minimum redundancy terms from the Government.
Sarah Woolley, the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union general secretary, said: “It is disgusting how badly the workers at Dawnfresh have been treated.
"They have been let down, lied to, and mistreated by their employer throughout this whole process.
"I am furious at how the company has behaved and left these workers without pay and redundancy and left them dependent on crisis grants and food banks to pay their bills and get food.
“Our fury is compounded by the fact the owner is one of Scotland’s richest people and was more interested in saving his expensive artwork than 200 jobs.”
She added: “This situation is now an emergency and it requires an emergency package of support from the Scottish
Government and greater coordination to help people between the Government, councils and other public agencies.”
A spokesman for joint administrators FRP Advisory said: “Any staff that believe that they are owed wages or other payments up to and including week ending 28th February are being actively encouraged to lodge a claim with the Redundancy Payments Office.
“The Arbroath facility was sold for £1.2million and Alastair Salvesen will not benefit from the sale.
“The reference to connected parties relates to an additional £13million loan made available to the group in 2019 and 2020 by Alastair Salvesen and the family trust.
“He did not derive any income from the business.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are disappointed at the decision taken by Dawnfresh to enter administration and supporting the workers and their families is our immediate priority.
“Business minister Ivan McKee is continuing to work with businesses, agencies and partners to explore viable options for the future of the site, including engaging with local trade unions and MSPs.”
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