Cape Town, South Africa-based Oceana Group Limited has announced the appointment of Trevor Giles as its interim chief operating officer.
The former holder of the position, Elton Bosch, exited the company suddenly earlier this month. Bosch, who served in the position barely eight months before leaving on 31 January, 2020, left Oceana “to pursue other business interests.”
Oceana, which is Africa’s largest fishing company, with fishing and processing interests in Namibia, as well as the United States through its ownership of menhaden specialist Daybrook Fisheries, said Giles will serve as interim COO until “a suitable candidate has been identified.” Oceana is primarily focused on catching, processing, marketing, and distribution of canned fish, fishmeal, fish oil, lobster, horse mackerel, squid, and hake.
Giles, the company’s chief financial officer, is a qualified chartered accountant with more than 19 years of service at Oceana. He replaced Imraan Soomra as CFO when Soomra was picked as the company’s new chief executive officer in August 2018.
Despite the leadership move and additional changes in its board of directors, Oceana has continued to post decent financials, helped by increasing global demand for canned fish, horse mackerel and hake. In the last financial year, which ended 30 September, 2019, Oceana reported revenues at approximately USD 507.5 million (EUR 468.5 million), down very slightly from 2018’s USD 508 million (EUR 469 million).
Oceana’s African operations reported a 1 percent increase in revenue for the period “underpinned by volume growth of 8 percent in canned fish and 8 percent increase in horse mackerel and hake pricing,” according to the company’s consolidated audited results.
However, the company reported a drop in earnings from the South African fishmeal and oil revenues because of lower landings that is partly attributed to the “extended winter weather patterns affected landings of industrial fish to the group's fishmeal plants in South Africa.”
Photo courtesy of Oceana
