Union Martín, a key supplier to Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona, has been purchased by Alantra, a private equity fund.
Union Martín was founded in 1998 and had revenue above EUR 80 million (USD 97.7 million) in 2017. The company, based in Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, specializes in in cephalopods, including octopus, squid, and cuttlefish; flatfish including sole and flounder; and finfish includes chernes, croaker, and snapper.
Terms of the deal were not announced, but Alantra confirmed Union Martín’s current management team will remain in place following the close of the transaction, which must be approved by regulatory agencies in Spain, according to a press release.
Union Martín’s relationship with Mercadona is mainly limited to seafood brought ashore and processed in the Canary Islands and is not exclusive, Unión Martín has a total of 20 vessels and two processing plants in Las Palmas, has numerous exclusive supply agreements with four freezer fishing boats in Morocco owned by its Moroccan subsidiary Palma Pesca.
Besides Spain, Union Martín also sells to retailers and distributors in numerous other countries including Italy, Greece, the United States, Japan, China, and Uruguay.
Union Martín Executive Director José Lorenzo Noda said the investment “will serve to grow the company and accelerate [the company’s] internationalization.”
“With the support of Alantra, we will be able to institutionalize our company to a greater extent, strengthen our management, and advance in the process of internationalization of our activity,” Lorenzo Noda said.
Alantra Private Equity CEO Gonzalo de Rivera said his firm invested in Union Martín due to “its unique positioning, its solid relationships with both suppliers and clients ,and [its] high potential for growth and international expansion, which makes it a unique consolidation platform in a sector that is still very fragmented.”
