Last updated 19:27, Thursday, 20 November 2008

MARYPORT’S family-run Brookside fish factory has recruited up to 50 extra workers to help it over its busiest Christmas rush in years.

The jobs are for a limited period of about three months, but resources director Richard Hodgson said the company was looking at positive options for next year.

Normally the factory employs around 65 people but, because of the Christmas rush this had risen to 120.

The factory’s success has thrown a temporary lifeline to some workers who were made redundant by the closure of nearby Cumbria Seafoods. Management there claimed last month that they had been forced to close because of a downturn in orders.

But Mr Hodgson said the situation was very different at Brookside.

He said: “We supply smoked salmon for John West and have just been involved in a major promotion with Sainsbury’s. We are also supplying all the Co-op’s own brand salmon.

“But the biggest contract at the moment is our exports to Italy. Most of our smoked salmon is going there.

“All the major Italian supermarkets are stocking our range and if you buy smoked Scottish salmon in an Italian supermarket it is more than likely that it has come from Maryport.”

Two years ago the company opened Taste of the Lakes, next to its factory on the Glasson Industrial Estate.

The shop, which has won prizes for its quality, now employs eight people and stocks a range of fresh and frozen products.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday night a fire broke out in the Brookside’s wet fish area, where kilns are fired 24 hours a day.

Mr Hodgson said that about a dozen people were working when the fire broke out just before 7.45pm, and had to be evacuated.

Insurers and inspectors have been in the building trying to assess the scale of the damage.

Mr Hodgson said it seemed likely that the cause would be traced to one of the kilns but there was no definite evidence.

Fire crews were at the scene for about two hours.