Cooke buys US seafood business
Family-owned global salmon farmer and seafood sales heavyweight Cooke Inc. has agreed to buy Slade Gorton, one of the largest distributors, importers, and manufacturers of fresh and frozen seafood in the United States, for an undisclosed sum.
Slade Gorton, which was founded in 1928 by Thomas Slade Gorton, Jr, will continue to be led by fifth generation family members Kim Gorton, chief executive, and her brother Mike Gorton Jr., executive vice president for business development.
“As the world has evolved over the past several years, it became clear that to accelerate our mission and impact, it made sense to join forces with a diverse, vertically integrated company run by people who share our family values and vision for reshaping the consumer’s experience with seafood,” said Kim Gorton in a press release.
“There could be no better fit than (Cooke chief executive) Glenn Cooke and the incredible global company his team is building. We are excited to join forces with the Cooke family of companies to take the Gorton family’s legacy forward.”
Building on expertise
Slade Gorton currently offers more than 800 seafood products and maintains long-standing partnerships with hundreds of leading North American foodservice and retail customers.
“Cooke and Slade Gorton share a passion for ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to enjoy delicious, nutritious and sustainable seafood whether dining at home or in a restaurant,” said Glenn Cooke. “We will build on the expertise, innovation, and deep commitment to its customers’ success that Slade Gorton is so well-respected for. Working together with (Cooke's) True North Seafood sales team and leveraging Cooke’s global infrastructure and reach, we will help support our customers in increasing consumption of seafood in North America.”
Cooke, headquartered in New Brunswick, Atlantic Canada, farms salmon in North America, Scotland, Chile, and Tasmania, bass and bream in the Mediterranean, and shrimp in Latin America and Australia.
It also has seafood and wild fishery divisions, and produces fish feed as part of a vertically integrated operation.
