Consolidation in the seafood industry pales in comparison to other industries. The degree of consolidation in seafood is maybe about 20 percent, compared to the poultry industry where the top five companies control 70 percent to 80 percent of the sales, according to Michael Richard, VP of seafood industry banking at Santander Bank.
“It’s something people have been talking about for a long time, we’ve seen more activity in the last couple of years,” said Richard. “High Liner, for example, has been very public about wanting to grow their business as their customers place more demands on them for different types of services. Customers will force consolidation.”
Richard added that one of the biggest challenges for consolidation in the seafood industry is that “we tend to throw all these species into one bucket and call it all seafood, and that’s a bit of a challenge because salmon is different from scallops and different from clams, there are different dynamics and different things going on. It’s going to be difficult to bring different species together under the same umbrella — but it will happen.
“There’s much more pressure from customers because of certification requirements, and auditing and information sharing and category management concepts. If you’re going to be in the business you have to have these capabilities.”
Santander is also aiming to expand its presence in North America, breaking out of its traditional “super regional” market to all around the entire country.
“Going forward the future is bright,” said Richard. “Not that there won’t be challenges, there always are.
“Wherever you find seafood ports and big processing facilities is where we’ll find ourselves. Speaking with our customers I am very optimistic about growth. I love helping companies, supporting growth. I get a kick out of it. This is going to be fun.”
