Cooke swallows up US seafood firm Mariner
True North Seafood, the processing division and flagship brand of Canada-based fish farmer Cooke Inc., has completed its acquisition of Mariner Seafood, headquartered in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in the United States.
Mariner reached an asset purchase agreement with True North Seafood earlier this year after running into financial difficulty.
Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement, Mariner was required to consider other bids for its assets prior to consummating a sale to True North.
Long-held dream
“It has long been a dream of our family seafood company to have a presence in the number one value fishing port in the (US) nation, New Bedford,” said Cooke chief executive Glenn Cooke in a press release.
“We now have over 4,000 Cooke employees in 22 US states and we will continue to invest and grow our New Bedford processing operations to supply our customers with healthy, top quality True North Seafood products.”
Mariner, an international fresh and frozen seafood company, specialises in processing a broad range of premium wild and farmed species including scallops, haddock, cod, salmon and shrimp.
170 workers
Its key branded products are GO WILD in the packaged case ready tray segment and MarSelect, which is primarily a scallop brand.
Mariner currently has a workforce of 170 and is capable of processing over 8,000 tonnes of seafood product between a 32,000 square foot headquarters and a 14,000 square foot salmon processing facility on the New Bedford waterfront.
“We’re very pleased to welcome True North Seafood to New Bedford and we look forward to supporting Cooke’s continued growth as a global seafood leader,” said the port city’s mayor, Jon Mitchell.
“The Port of New Bedford serves as the city’s greatest natural resource and the economic engine of south-eastern Massachusetts, stimulating investment, attracting new industry, and creating jobs. True North will be a welcome addition to the port.”
