GRWC Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of Polish investment fund, Abris Capital, has agreed to acquire a majority stake equal to 55.77 percent in leading Polish fish processor, Graal SA, for an undisclosed amount.
GRWC reportedly has intentions of acquiring full ownership of the company and de-listing it from the Warsaw Stock Exchange, according to Intra Fish.
Based in Wejherowo on the Baltic Sea, Graal sells salmon, trout, tuna, herring, sardines, and sprat products under the brand names SuperFish, SuperFish Prestige, Koral, Kuchina Staropolska, and Gaster.
The strategic investment will be used by the company to fund the expansion of its fish processing capacity, to increase its export sales, and to fund the future acquisition of Western European salmon aquaculture operations in order to secure a steady supply of fish for processing at its sites in Poland where the company has annual revenues of €213 million (US$239 million).
“Our company is currently in a state in which, to continue its growth at a dynamic pace, we need to support our activities in several fields,” said Boguslaw Kowalski, the chief executive and founder of Graal. “Today, our market strategy consists of expanding abroad. This is the direction in which we want to develop our activities.”
In an interview with Polish news outlet, Portalspozywczy.pl, Kowalski noted that the fastest route to development is through acquisitions, stating, “For this reason, we need capital. We also need knowledge that is particularly important in the case of planned acquisitions of foreign companies.” Both are things that GRWC can fulfill for Graal.
“A fund which, on the one hand, has the necessary capital, and, on the other, the required experience in these key areas is an optimal solution for us,” notes Kowalski.
The fish processing industry in Poland is one of the largest in Europe, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). The country boasts 250 processing plants licensed for export to European markets along with hundreds of family owned companies that sell regionally. In 2014, total output from Poland’s fish processing sector reached 456,000 tons at a value of PLN 8.5 billion (US$2.2 billion).
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Lynda Kiernan