Atunlo planning retail expansion in Singapore as first step into Asian market

Vigo, Spain-based Atunlo is planning to expand its presence in Singapore to retail products after successful meetings at Seafood Expo Asia (SEA), the company told SeafoodSource.

The company presented a range of its retail products in Southeast Asia for the first time at SEA, which ran from 14 through 16 September, 2022, at the at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre. Atunlo, a joint venture between the Spanish fishing firms Inpesca, Pevasa, and Coper, is a wholesaler of frozen seafood for the food industry, with a specialty range of fresh and frozen tuna products. The company recently expanded into the retail space.

“We have three plants in Spain, two plants doing pre-cooked products for the canning industry, and one plant doing all the raw products either for the retail or HORECA [hotel, restaurant and catering],” Atunlo Key Account Manager Dominique Forey told SeafoodSource. “We have also one plant in Portugal processing pre-cooked product and we have a plant in West Africa – Cape Verde – processing raw products and frozen products.”

According to Forey, Atunlo already had a presence in Singapore, but the company had never showcased its relatively new retail products there before.

“We have an importer here for the HORECA industry,” Forey said. “They told me that they want to proceed with the retail range also.”

Following further discussions with the importer, Forey said he expects the company’s new retail products to be on shelves soon.

“We think the next few weeks, the next few months maybe, all these products are going to be here [in Singapore],” he said.

Singapore, Forey said, is hopefully just the start for Atunlo’s retail presence in Asia. The company is hoping to use contacts made at SEA to begin establishing a larger presence in the region.

“We are going to expand to other countries in Asia. We got very good feedback during the show,” Forey said. “Really it was a very good show for us, so we want to be back next year.”  

Photo by Chris Chase/SeafoodSource