Business / Blydoit set to close, but Lerwick fish shop will continue
A WELL established local fish monger is set to stop trading by the end of the month, but its Lerwick shop will be kept open and taken over by processing company QA Fish.
The owners of Blydoit Fish Ltd have unsuccessfully tried to sell their business for almost two years, and after two possible deals falling through, they are now in the process of closing down.
QA Fish has agreed to take on the Lerwick fish shop at Rudda Park as well as most of Blydoit’s 16 employees, but the Scalloway shop will close on 26 April.
Blydoit director James Shearer said it was good news for Shetland in that at least one of the two popular fish shops will stay open, but bad news for the owners who had hoped to be able to sell the business as a going concern.
Shearer and his co-directors had been trying to retire for some time after more than 20 years of running two busy shops and a small processing unit that supplies fresh fish to most country shops and many hotels and restaurants.
Blydoit Fish was established in 2003 when the owners of the then Burra based whitefish trawler Mizpah LK173 established their own fish processing unit and retail shop in Scalloway.
QA Fish managing director Robert Williamson confirmed the company would take on the lease of the Lerwick shop and the majority of the staff but said that nothing had been signed yet.
“It would be terrible for Shetland to be without a proper fish shop,” he said, and confirmed that the Lerwick shop would continue to run with very few changes.
With the difficulties in recruiting people to many industries, QA Fish also hopes to be able to fill a few of the vacancies in its processing unit with fish filleters taken on from Blydoit.
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