The French fish-to-fork company behind retailer Intermarché this week unveiled a refurbished processing facility allowing it to double its seafood production.
Les Mousquetaires announced that it completed renovations at its Viviers de la Méloine facility, tripling its production surface area. The company acquired the facility in 1997.
“With 12,000 [metric] tons of products sold each year, the Viviers de la Méloine facility aims to double annual production and to develop new products, thanks to this new tool,” said Stéphane Chappaz, president of the seafood department at Les Mousquetaires.
Confirming the company’s desire to tap into the buoyant market for ready-prepared seafood products, he added: “Our aim responds to growing consumer demand for self-service and ready-to-eat products.”
The Viviers de la Méloine facility works in parallel with Capitaine Houat, the group’s second processing arm that umbrellas two units. Combined, the units turn over about 23,000 [metric] tons of fresh fish and prawn products annually. The two fish and prawn processing units of Capitaine Houat are based in Lorient, Brittany, and Normandy’s Boulogne-sur-Mer.
In a bid to “master” seafood production from ocean to plate, Les Mousquetaires has a fleet of 17 fishing boats and claims to be the No. 1 fresh fishing producer in France.
Founded in 1969, the privately owned Les Mousquetaires, which is actually a cluster of independent firms, operates several different retail and restaurant brands, including the Intermarché supermarket chain, with about 2,000 stores.
