Premium Brands Holdings Corporation once again posted a record EBITDA in Q1 2025, while its subsidiary Clearwater Seafoods continues to struggle.
The company posted a Q1 2025 adjusted EBITDA of CAD 136.5 million (USD 98 million, EUR 87 million), an increase of CAD 15.5 million (USD 11.1 million, EUR 9.9 million), or 12.8 percent, compared to Q1 2024. That total came from CAD 1.68 billion (USD 1.2 billion, EUR 1.1 billion) in revenue, which was a 14.9 percent, or CAD 217.4 million (USD 156.1 million, EUR 139 million), increase.
“We are pleased to report another quarter of solid progress in leveraging recent capital allocations to create long-term sustainable value for our shareholders. This was despite significant cost inflation for certain raw materials and a volatile consumer environment created by tariff-related uncertainties,” Premium Brands President and CEO George Paleologou said in a release.
Paleologou said the core drivers of the performance was its protein, sandwich, and bakery sales, which had CAD 100 million (USD 71.8 million, EUR 63.9 million) in organic growth in Q1 2025. Recent acquisitions also increased the company’s revenue, but impacted profitability negatively as the company implements operational initiatives.
“On the acquisitions front, we continue to enjoy a robust deal pipeline and are working on several exciting opportunities that we expect to close in the coming quarters,” Paleologou said. “We are, however, committed to deleveraging our balance sheet over the course of 2025 and any transactions we complete will be done within this context.”
Premium Brands went on a seafood company acquisition streak starting in 2018, rapidly rolling up the North American lobster sector by acquiring Starboard Seafood, Maine Coast, Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co., Viandex, and North Delta Seafood in 2019 and 2020, and Ready Seafood in 2018. The company briefly paused its acquisitions during the Covid-19 pandemic, but resumed its acquisition strategy in August 2020.
Now, the company said it is in early stage discussions on a potential acquisition of two seafood companies, and it has shelved discussions with seven other companies. In Q4 2024, it said it was in active negotiations with two seafood companies, but never announced any acquisitions.
One of the company’s major seafood acquisitions, Clearwater Seafoods, continued to struggle in Q1 2025 after a FY 2024 that saw it post CAD 82.1 million (USD 58.9 million, EUR 52.5 million) in losses.
According to Premium Brands, Clearwater Seafood posted CAD 91.9 million (USD 66 million, EUR 58.8 million) in revenue in Q1 2025, down from the CAD 123.5 million (USD 88.7 million, EUR 79 million) it posted in the same period of 2024. Net loss increased to CAD 48.2 million (USD 34.6 million, EUR 30.8 million), worsening from the CAD 25.9 million (USD 18.6 million, EUR 16.5 million) loss it posted in Q1 2024.
Premium blamed the large decrease in revenue on multiple factors, including the unexpected maintenance on two Canadian vessels that resulted in lost harvesting days and below-average harvesting conditions for Canadian scallops and clams.
“These factors were partially offset by higher Argentine scallop volumes due to improved harvesting conditions,” Premium said.
The company also said high lobster prices and a “challenging Maine lobster fishery” resulted in lower demand for its lobster products. Reduced exports to China due to the trade war between the U.S. and China also factored into the lower lobster sales.
Despite tariffs impacting its lobster sales, Paleologou said elsewhere the company has made progress on mitigating the effects of any tariff escalations, “and are confident that an escalation of the trade disputes between Canada and the U.S. will not have a direct material impact on our business.”
