Gender Pay Gap

Gender Pay Gap Report 2025

Introduction

Associated Seafoods Limited (ASL) is the parent company of Lossie Seafoods, Moray Seafoods and Loch Fyne Oysters. As a business operating in the food manufacturing sector, we recognise the importance of building a diverse and inclusive workforce and ensuring fair and transparent pay practices across the organisation.

The seafood and food processing industry continues to face skills and labour shortages. In response, we continue to invest in our people, creating opportunities for development, progression and skills growth across all areas of the business. We are committed to providing a workplace where individuals are valued for their contribution and where both men and women can build long-term careers.

Our pay arrangements aim to reward employees fairly for their contribution and performance, taking into account organisational performance, individual achievement and external market conditions.

Under the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017, UK organisations with more than 250 employees are required to publish annual Gender Pay Gap data. This report outlines the difference between the average hourly earnings of men and women within our workforce and the distribution of men and women across pay quartiles.

This report is based on the snapshot date of 5 April 2025.

Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap measures the difference between the average hourly pay of men and women across the organisation. It is expressed as a percentage and is reported using two calculations:

Mean gender pay gap – the difference between the average hourly pay of men and women
Median gender pay gap – the difference between the midpoint hourly pay of men and women

It is important to note that the gender pay gap is different from equal pay. Equal pay refers to the legal requirement for men and women to receive the same pay for performing equal work. As an equal opportunities employer, we ensure that men and women are paid equally for performing equivalent roles.

As of the snapshot date of 5 April 2025:

Mean gender pay gap: 8.04%
Median gender pay gap: 6.4%

Our results are broadly in line with the wider UK food manufacturing sector.

The gender pay gap within the business is primarily influenced by the distribution of men and women across different occupational groups and levels of seniority within the organisation. Higher-paid technical, engineering and operational leadership roles continue to be more heavily represented by men, reflecting broader labour market trends within the manufacturing and seafood sectors.

Encouragingly, we continue to see increasing numbers of women joining the business and progressing into skilled, technical and supervisory roles.

Bonus Pay Gap
No bonus payments were made during the reporting period.

Pay Quartiles

Distribution of men and women across pay quartiles (2025)
The data shows that female representation increases progressively through the middle pay quartiles but remains lower in the highest pay quartile.

This distribution reflects the current gender composition of certain occupational groups within the business. Operational support and some processing roles have a higher proportion of female employees, while senior technical, engineering and operational leadership roles remain more heavily represented by men. This pattern reflects wider labour market trends across the food manufacturing sector.

The concentration of men in the upper pay quartile has the greatest influence on the overall mean gender pay gap.

Pay quartiles divide the workforce into four equal groups based on hourly pay, from lowest to highest. This helps illustrate the proportion of men and women across different pay levels within the organisation.

Quartile	% Men	% Women
Upper hourly pay quartile	69.8%	30.2%
Upper middle hourly pay quartile	61.7%	38.3%
Lower middle hourly pay quartile	55.1%	44.9%
Lower hourly pay quartile	34.6%	65.4%

Next steps

We remain committed to creating opportunities for all employees and supporting the development of a diverse workforce.
Our focus areas include:

supporting internal progression into supervisory, technical and leadership roles
continuing to promote skills development and training opportunities
encouraging a diverse pipeline of talent through engagement with schools, colleges and apprenticeship programmes
monitoring pay and reward decisions to ensure they are applied fairly and consistently
reviewing workforce data regularly to identify opportunities to improve representation across all levels of the organisation

We will continue to monitor progress and report on developments in future gender pay gap statements.

Declaration

We confirm that the information set out in this gender pay gap written statement is accurate as at the snapshot date of 5 April 2025.

Barbara Lugowska
Group Head of HR