Tassal owner Cooke reels in big US seafood distributor and its bolsters global expansion

After acquiring Tasmanian salmon producer Tassal for $1.7bn last November, Canada’s Cooke is looking to become the fisherman’s basket of the world.

Tassal’s new owner, Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke, is ramping up its acquisition spending spree, taking over one of the US’s biggest distributors, importers and manufacturers of fresh and frozen seafood.

Cooke has acquired Slade Gorton – a 95-year-old seafood distributor based in Massachusetts – for an undisclosed sum. It comes four months after it completed its $1.7bn takeover of Tassal, a Tasmanian salmon producer formerly listed on the ASX.

Cooke chief executive Glenn Cooke told this masthead that he plans to export Tassal’s products into new markets, including Europe, where it acquired another seafood distributor.

“Tasmania sells and I think there is positioning for some of that,” Mr Cooke said when the company finalised its Tassal takeover.

Slade Gorton allows Cooke to expand deeper into the US market. The distributor supplies hundreds of food service companies and retailers with more than 800 seafood products. It has been owned by the Gorton family since it was founded in 1928.

“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,” Mr Cooke said on Wednesday.

“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 the 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.”

At the same time, Mr Cooke plans to expand Tassal’s product offering, which includes expanding potentially into barramundi and kingfish. It has already diversified into prawns after it acquired Fortune Group for $31.9m four eyears ago.

Tassal chief executive Mark Ryan said the company was now a global company, following its takeover by Cooke.

“So I think for us, it’s not just saying ‘it has to be here or there’. It really is about which is the best spot to actually do that and give you the best payback and from a risk point, what was going to be the place that minimises the risk,” Mr Ryan said in November.

Cooke turns over $2.7bn annually and has salmon farms in Canada, US, Chile and Scotland, with 10,000 employees. It is understood to be looking to increase its geographic diversification further to help reduce the risks such as adverse weather and disease.

Demand for Australian aquaculture assets has increased in recent years. Brazilian meat processing giant JBS bought Tasmanian salmon producer Huon aquaculture for $425m in 2021, while Cooke has been circling Tassal for the past decade.

Meanwhile, supermarket chains have urged producers to deliver more species on top of the trout, barramundi, yellowtail kingfish and other varieties that are on offer.

This has included expanding into Murray Cod, with ASX-listed Aquna signing supply contracts with Coles and Woolworths. South Australia also hopes to become the country’s first producer of Beluga caviar, with plans to import sturgeon – a move that would cement its position as Australia’s commercial fishery capital. Already, South Australia fattens tuna in pens, farms kingfish, barramundi, rainbow trout and oysters.

David Williams, the investment banker who advised Cooke on the deal through his Kidder Williams advisory firm, told The Australian late last year: “Farming animals and fish has been subject to continuous improvement, in animal husbandry and feed and growing methods.”

But not everything is booming. Seafarms Group — one of the largest and most well-regarded prawn farming companies in the country — put its wholly owned entity Project Sea Dragon into voluntary administration last month after a contractual dispute with construction contractor Canstruct.

Originally published as Tassal owner Cooke reels in big US seafood distributor and its bolsters global expansion