Seafood giant netted by pork processor
Young’s Seafood, Britain’s largest seafood business, has been bought by UK pork processor Karro Food Group.
Karro is owned by private equity firm CapVest, a former owner of Grimsby-based Young’s.
Between them, the pork and seafood businesses will have sales of around £1.2 billion per annum and employ more than 5,000 people across the UK and Ireland. Karro and Young’s will operate as two separate businesses within the group.
Complementary businesses
Di Walker, currently executive chair of Karro, has been appointed chief executive of the new group.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to create an ambitious multi-protein food business of considerable scale,” said Walker. “Young’s and Karro are highly complementary businesses and the combined platform will have strong market positions in two important protein categories that are experiencing consistent long-term growth.”
Young’s chief executive Bill Showalter said the move will be positive for the fish and seafood industry as a whole.
“With CapVest’s existing understanding of our industry, and as part of a multi-protein food group, we will have the opportunity to inspire more consumers to love fish through our fresh, frozen, own-label and branded products,” said Showalter.
Young’s was put up for sale in April 2018. It is currently owned by three private equity companies, HPS Investments, Lion and Bain Capital, which also has a stake in Chilean salmon farmer Nova Austral.
