Iceland Seafood to exit UK value-added market
In its third quarter financial statement, the seafood processor said the UK's performance had eroded the group’s profitability to the extent that the board no longer felt it was justifiable to continue.
“This has also meant that management resources have to a large degree, been devoted to this situation instead of capturing growth opportunities elsewhere,” said the statement.
Evaluate options
“Iceland Seafood has retained MAR Advisors to support the exit process and will evaluate different options in the coming weeks.”
Plans to exit the UK come two years after the seafood processor revealed plans to merge its UK operation and invest in a ‘significant’ processing and coldstore capacity in Grimsby.
While the company concluded that its UK operation was no longer a strategic fit for the business, it said that the facilities and ‘strong management team’ in Grimsby could be a great addition to other companies in the sector.
Iceland Seafood reported the UK operation continued to be loss making with a normalised loss before tax of €9.2m (£7.98m) in the first nine months of 2022 – compared to a loss of €1.3m (£1.12m) for the same period last year.
Irish sales
Sales in Ireland for the first nine months of the year were in line with the same time as the previous year in value terms, but 13% lower in volume.
“Lower and more stable salmon prices helped the Irish operation in Q3, but whitefish sourcing was challenging at the same time, both locally in Ireland, from Iceland, and Scotland,” read the report.
“Continuing effects of a challenging external environment and operational difficulties negatively impacted the UK operation. Significant price increases of various input factors negatively impacted margins and led to further losses both with respect to prior periods and short-term outlook.”
