35973: Opening of Seaweed Factory at Keose

Extract from Stornoway Gazette, May 1 1965

NEW FACTORY A BOON TO LOCHS DISTRICT:

COUNTY CONVENER PERFORMS OPENING CEREMONY

The new seaweed factory at Keose will be a boon to Lewis and the parish of Lochs in particular, bringing 15,000 a year to the island. This was said by Captain AF Matheson, Convener of Ross and Cromarty County Council who officially opened the factory last Wednesday.

Also present at the opening ceremony were the General Manager of the company, Alginate Industries Ltd, who built the factory, Colonel Charles Cameron, the Chairman, Mr WR Merton and the Managing Directors, Colonel Campbell Preston and Mr R Merton. The company’s guests included Mr Donald Stewart, Provost of Stornoway, representatives of local government and firms and bodies who had assisted in the building of the factory, the local doctor and ministers and a representative from the shipping firm which will transport the processed seaweed.

Captain Matheson told the guests and local people who had gathered to see the opening ceremony that Alginate Industries Ltd spent 86,000 per year in the industry in the Uists, Orkneys and Tiree, where they already had factories. To this they would now add 15,000 in Lewis, which brough the total over the 100,000 mark.

There were 400 men in different parts of the Highlands or the Orkneys collecting weed and the average number of full-time employees in the Uist factories was 45. Keose was expected to give full-time employment to nine men but the benefit to Lewis did not end there, as more men would be needed to cut the seaweed. The building of the factory had brought considerable pay packets to the island in indirectly, many others, including transport operators and shop-keepers would get extra business.