Danish seafood processing firm Espersen announced it is planning to withdraw from primary processing and shift toward added-value consumer business following a poor financial performance in FY 2025.
Espersen said it will undergo a strategic transformation to strengthen its long-term competitiveness, which will see it undergo a consultation process that could result in the sale of its primary processing facilities. That shift is largely the result of a challenging year which saw the company’s sales reach DKK 3.3 billion (USD 502 million, EUR 441 million) and its EBIT drop to a loss of DKK 195 million (USD 29.7 million, EUR 26.1 million).
"The seafood industry has changed fundamentally. Lower fish quotas, significantly higher raw material prices and changing market conditions require us to rethink how we create value," Espersen CEO Tino Bendix said in a release. "We cannot build tomorrow's Espersen on assumptions that belonged to yesterday.”
Espersen said factors like the historically low Barents Sea cod quota, which was at the lowest level in 30 years in 2025, drove up raw material prices. That, coupled with market uncertainty, made it difficult for the company to make money off its primary processing business.
As its processing business struggled, the consumer business has been strengthened over the past two years, Espersen said. The company said its divestment of the Lithuanian operations and the closure of its Grimsby, U.K.-based facility just a few years after acquiring it has helped consolidate production in Poland to create a more efficient production footprint.
Espersen said going forward from the announcement it would reduce the level of primary production it has while continuing to invest in the consumer business, where it said it can create the strongest long-term value through “customer partnerships, category development, product innovation and operational excellence.”
“By focusing on solutions rather than commodities, Espersen aims to build a business with stronger margins, more stable demand and deeper customer partnerships,” the company said.
The company said Atlantic cod is one of the first primary processing activities it will reduce given the increasingly challenging environment for the species, which has seen quota cuts across most of its suppliers. Those changes are part of long-term structural shifts in seafood, requiring structural shifts in its own business.
“We see these market conditions as a structural shift, not a temporary downturn,” Bendix said. "Our responsibility is to ensure that Espersen remains a strong company not only next year, but for the foreseeable future. This transformation creates a stronger platform from which we can grow."
Espersen said that despite its poor performance in 2025, it is still in a position to create long-term growth thanks to its existing work on consumer products and customer partnerships.
"Our industry will continue to change, and so will we," Bendix said. "Espersen has successfully adapted throughout its 90-year history. We are reshaping Espersen to take advantage of the enormous potential we see by focusing on the areas where we create the greatest value for our customers. We are building a stronger, more competitive and more resilient company for the decades ahead."
