Last updated at 21:14, Thursday, 09 August 2012

A Maryport fish factory has a reputation for its smoked salmon that has won it both national and international awards.

AWARDS HONOUR: Alex McMorran, managing director of Grant’s, and product development manager Helen Wrigley with TV presenter Gethin Jones, left, and celebrity “cleaning lady” Aggie McKenzie, right

Grant’s Smokehouse Limited won best fish and best overall product categories at the recent Supermeat and Fish Awards, in which the largest supermarkets compete.

Grant’s helped Morrisons to become the Fish and Meat Retailer of the Year.

The winning product was a rope hung salmon that is prepared in a slower way to modern processing methods, but in the traditional method to maintain its flavour.

Alex McMorran, Grant’s managing director, said the company used salmon caught on the west coast of Scotland and the Shetlands and salmon approved as “Freedom Food” – the fish alternative to free range poultry.

The company was established in 1985 but moved to the USA in 1999. The original owners bought Grant’s again in 2009 after Cumbrian Seafoods in Maryport sold and moved to the North East.

Mr McMorran said the secret to success was a local, stable workforce, some of whom have been employed by Grant’s for 20 years.

He said: “It is the people in our factory who allow us to do what we do. That is the best Cumbrian resource.”

Grant’s sells its smoked Scottish salmon through Morrisons and Booker’s in the UK and through the international hypermarket chain Carrefour, in Europe. Maryport salmon is also sold through distributors across the United States.

First published at 19:19, Thursday, 09 August 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk