The shareholders of Manchester, England-headquartered Sykes Seafood and Dutch Seafood Company (DSC) announced agreement on December 23 for Sykes to acquire Klaas Puul, the shrimp business of DSC. Subject to works council and required regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of February 2020.
Meanwhile, the two companies have begun working together to ensure a smooth transition for Klaas Puul. The sale will allow DSC to focus on accelerating the growth of Foppen, its smoked salmon operation.
Klaas Puul was founded by an entrepreneur from Volendam, Evert Mooijer, who created one of Europe’s largest seafood processing companies. Recently, under DSC’s ownership, it has continued to grow and has benefited from substantial capital investment to further support infrastructure within its state-of-the-art processing factories in Volendam, Edam and Tangier, Morocco.
The combination of Sykes Seafood and Klaas Puul will create a €300 million pan-European seafood enterprise with expertise in all species of shrimp that will provide retail, foodservice and industrial further processing customers across Europe a wide range of high quality frozen and chilled products.
As the companies already share many synergies and similarities, the joining of the two organizations will provide a solid background for future growth and allow greater efficiencies in sourcing and production expertise. Both operate highly efficient and automated production facilities which are configured for high volume output.
