THE country’s appetite for fish and chips has helped a loss-making North-East business emerge as the largest independent supplier of seafood to the UK’s supermarket chains.

Next time you buy cod or prawns from your local Morrisons, Asda or Tesco, there is a good chance that it was supplied by Cumbrian Seafoods, which is based in Seaham, County Durham.

The business has overturned a £5.7m loss last year to record a healthy £3.1m profit margin and a turnover of £164m.

Seven out of ten of all the retail prawn cocktails, and half of all chilled cold water prawns sold in the country’s supermarkets are packed by the firm’s 700-strong workforce, and Cumbrian expects to be in the market to recruit more staff in the upcoming months after recently securing at least £20m of new business.

Managing director David Gilthorpe confirmed that the locally-owned business remained committed to County Durham.

“The attraction of the North-East continues to be the availability and quality of the local workforce, and the support that has been available across the region in terms of helping to deal with the challenges of setting up a substantial business,” he said.

Since outgrowing its original premises in Maryport, Cumbria, the business undertook a wholesale revamp of its operation by investing £20m to build a facility in Seaham, and complete a £5m redevelopment of its factory in Whitehaven.

The County Durham site, which provides full-time work for about 500 people, is now widely recognised by leading retailers as one of the best chilled foods manufacturing facilities in the world.

Cumbrian provided the fish and chips that helped Morrisons’ in-store cafes win a top award at this week’s National Fish and Chips Awards.

The company is also reacting to changes in the nation’s tastes and the growing consumer demand for fish that is sourced from sustainable stocks.

Cumbrian says its fish comes from responsibly-managed fisheries.

It has been sourcing linecaught cod from Iceland for more than 30 years and it is market leader in the supply of pangasius, also known as Vietnamese river cobbler, which is increasing in popularity.