Lerøy Seafood Group (LSG) has opened a new factory in Madrid, Spain, saying the 9,000-square-meter facility will strengthen its position in the Spanish and Portuguese markets.
Employing 160 people, the factory – its biggest in Spain to date – has been designed to increase the production capacity of its current offerings and to eventually extend the group’s product range.
The new facility has three production zones: one for ready-to-eat meals such as sushi and other dishes; one for processing fresh and frozen fish; and one for fish-smoking.
“Processing fresh and frozen fish, smoking salmon, and producing ready-meals are some of the innovations that will create new business opportunities, and which will undoubtedly reinforce the company’s leading position in the seafood market in Spain and the whole Iberian Peninsula,” Lerøy Processing Spain Managing Director Antonio Díez said.
Lerøy’s other Spanish factories – in Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, and Las Palmas – and its facility in Lisbon, Portugal, will now be upgraded to make new products – including sushi, noodles, yakisoba, ramen, gyoza, cod and salmon burgers, poke bowls, fish-based ready meals, smoked salmon, frozen salmon, and fresh salmon in consumer packaging.
“We create new products in response to demand from our customers in order to extend our range and to enter new segments,” Díez said.
Lerøy Processing Spain currently employs around 350 people, but Díez said that number will rise.
“Lerøy Processing Spain is constantly growing, both in terms of its production capacity and new projects,” Díez said. “That means we will need new talent for the Lerøy family.”
LSG harvested 186,600 metric tons (MT) of gutted-weight farmed salmon and trout in 2021, while its wild-catch operations landed 71,500 MT of fish, including 26,600 MT of cod.
Photo courtesy of Lerøy Seafood Group
