New Zealand’s Sealord Group Ltd has sold its processing plant in Caistor, England to a subsidiary of Nippon Suisan Kaisha, ortherwise known as Nissui, the company announced on Monday, 27 March.
The sale is effective 1 April, 2017, and the business will be renamed Caistor Seafoods Ltd, according to a press release.
“We have a great team at Caistor and Grimsby in Britain who have made a valued contribution to our business over many years,” Sealord CEO Steve Yung said. “Being aligned with a company that has similar ambitions in the European seafood processing space will help the business achieve its full potential.”
Yung said the Caistor business is “strong, with good long-term prospects.” The Caistor facility is a major supplier of seafood to Waitrose, a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. That relationship is set to continue under the new ownership group, according to Sealord Caistor CEO Adrian Crookes.
“There will be no change to our focus of servicing Waitrose with great quality seafood and Waitrose has given its full support to Nissui’s 100 percent investment,” Crookes said.
Nissui, which is also a 50 percent owner of Sealord, will now have complete control over the plant’s operations. Yung, of Sealord, said the business had been a valuable contributor to the group “over many years” but that the decision to sell the plant had been a strategic decision to focus on its operations in Oceania.
“[It] enables us to continue to be focused on operational performance and our vision to be the best deep-sea fishing business in New Zealand with a significant salmon farming operation in Australia,” Yung said. “All businesses need to have a clear focus and prioritize, along with continually reviewing their operations.”
