Norwegian seafood company King Oscar's American division is reporting "robust" year-on-year and early 2014 sales growth, fueled by the company's premium and skinless and boneless sardines.
Premium sardine sales figures show a 3.2 percent increase overall over the past year, with a 10.1 percent increase in the past 12 weeks alone.
For the company's skinless and boneless sardines, sales volumes went up 159.7 percent over the past year, and 135.5 percent over a 12-week period ending 22 February.
"We've seen skinless and boneless as an emerging growth market for some time, and by directing innovation and a sales-force focus, we've managed to realize some exciting gains," said John Engle, president of King Oscar USA.
Engle said he expects the company to expand on its skinless and boneless offerings.
"We have some innovative new products that are in the pipeline staged for 2014 launch, and skinless and boneless could be the first of these," Engle said. "We want to feed that growth and really set the bar for the skinless and boneless category."
April 3, 2014
