Icelandic Seachill CEO addresses impending sale of company

The CEO of one of the last pieces remaining in the Icelandic Group’s collection of seafood companies is preparing for his firm’s sale.

Icelandic Seachill CEO Simon Smith confirmed to SeafoodSource at the 2017 Seafood Expo Global that he informed the 750 or so employees at the Grimsby, United Kingdom-based firm that its ownership group is actively seeking to sell the company.

“They weren’t particularly surprised because we’ve not made any secret of the forthcoming sale process,” Smith said. “They expected it.”

The Icelandic Group has been selling off its seafood assets since December 2015. Seachill, a leading supplier of chilled fish to the U.K. retail market and owner of retail brand The Saucy Fish Co., had revenues of GBP 266.3 million (USD 340.5 million, EUR 318.4 million) in 2016, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of GBP 10.4 million (USD 13.3 million, EUR 12.4 million).  

“It’s hard to say precisely what the sale will mean for the company, but it will likely largely be business as usual,” Smith said. “We have exceptionally strong relationships with our customers and a very successful business that is performing extremely well, and there’s no reason to change that.”

Smith said he’s eager to see the sales process over with.

“The best thing to come out of this, actually, will be to pass through the ‘about-to-be-for-sale’ period to to the ‘having-been-sold’ period and getting to a new phase of investment and new phase of ownership,” Smith said. “That will then bring stability and security and an ability to do longer-term planning. Obviously, it has been no secret for a number of years that this process would start at some point. The best thing will be to pass through to the other side of it.”