Premium Brands continues seafood company acquisition streak, posts record Q3 2023

Premium Brands Holdings Corporation has acquired another seafood company in Quebec, continuing its streak of acquisitions in a quarter during which it recorded revenue and earnings. 

The Richmond, British Columbia, Canada-based company announced during its regular Q3 2023 results presentation its acquisition of Rivière-au-Renard, Quebec, Canada-based seafood distributor Menu-Mer.

“Menu-Mer, whose market focus complements the geographical reach of our Quebec-based Viandex and C&C businesses, will be leveraging access to our ecosystem to enhance their buying power and expand the portfolio of products they can offer their customers," Premium Brands President and CEO George Paleologou said. "Our acquisitions pipeline remains very robust and we are in active dialogues with many small and large businesses. Correspondingly, we are well-positioned to complete more transactions in 2024.”

According to its investor presentation, Premium Brands is in active acquisitive negotiations with seven different seafood companies with combined sales of CAD 406 million (USD 295 million, EUR 272 million). It also said it is in “discussions” with four seafood companies with sales totaling CAD 310 million (USD 225 million, EUR 208 million), and has identified a future acquisition opportunity of a firm with CAD 54 million (USD 39 million, EUR 36 million) in sales. It said it has put nine potential seafood industry acquisitions – of firms with combined sales of nearly CAD 1.45 billion (USD 1.05 billion, EUR 974 million) – on hold. 

Premium Brands has rapidly rolled up the North American lobster sector, acquiring Starboard Seafood, Maine Coast, Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co., Viandex, and North Delta Seafood in 2019 and 2020 and Ready Seafood in 2018. The company briefly paused its acquisitions during the Covid-19 pandemic, but resumed its acquisition strategy in August 2020.

Premium Brands also announced that it is constructing a new, 60,000-quare-food value-added seafood processing facility in Auburn, Maine, U.S.A.

The latest acquisition announcement came amid another record-breaking quarter for Premium Brands. The company posted sales revenue of CAD 1.64 billion (USD 1.19 billion, EUR 1.1 billion) in Q3 2023, a 1.3 percent – or CAD 21 million (USD 15.3 million, EUR 14.1 million) – increase compared to Q3 2022. That total is also a slight increase from Q2 2023, which saw a record Q2 revenue of CAD 1.63 billion (USD 1.18 billion, EUR 1.09 billion).

Premium Brands also posted ... 

Photo courtesy of Premium Brands Holdings Corporation