AgroSuper has decided to move all its salmon farming operations under the AquaChile brand, integrating several recent major acquisitions. The Puerto Montt, Chile-based company has also named a new leadership team.
AgroSuper acquired a 67 percent share in AquaChile in August 2018 for USD 850 million (EUR 736.4 million), which also gave it control of AquaChile subsidiaries Los Fiordos, Friosur, and Salmones Magallanes. The operations of all of those firms will now be organized under the AquaChile name, AgroSuper said in a press release last week – making it the second-largest farmed salmon company in the world, with around 350 farming concessions in four regions of Chile and total production of more than 200,000 metric tons (whole fish equivalent).
AgroSuper said all of the companies, which came together over the past year, will continue to integrate over the coming months, and that a leadership team has been chosen to oversee AquaChile’s future. That includes the appointment of José Guzmán as president of AquaChile, Sady Delgado as general manager, and corporate managers José Manuel Schwerter (Production), Joachim Wessel (Services for Production), Vicente de la Cruz (Commercial), Juan Pablo Rodríguez (Industrial), Francisco Lepeley (Administration and Finance), and Javiera Salamanca (People). Guzmán previously served as the CEO of AgroSuper and Delgado was CEO of Los Fiordos. Agustín Ugalde Preuss, who had served as CEO of AquaChile since 2016, was not named as a part of the new leadership team.
"We want to form a single large company, integrating human teams, brands, customer networks, production systems and information, among other aspects,” Guzmán said. “This will allow us to generate synergies to make salmon production in Chile and the world more efficient and sustainable, contributing to the development of the geographical areas where we operate, delivering the highest levels of service to our customers, and offering a high product portfolio [with] added value.”
At Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts, from 17 to 19 March, AquaChile debuted commercially as a single company, exhibiting its four salmon brands: AquaChile, Verlasso, SuperSalmon, and Salmones Magallanes. The company had two stands at SENA – one for U.S. customers and a second focused on international business.
In an interview with Chilean business journal Economia y Negocios, Guzmán said the integration process for all of AgroSuper's new brands will take time.
"I estimate it will take us at least three years build a single company, in all, brands, customer network, production systems, information systems, equipment, etc," he said. "We need three years to look inside and see how to make this company more efficient, which is our goal."
