While High Liner Foods had relatively disappointing news for shareholders on February 17, the news was worse for employees who will lose jobs processing whitefish at the company’s plant in New Bedford, Massachusetts. This is its third wave of production consolidation in the past three years, following the closure of former Fishery Products and Viking Seafoods factories in the Bay State during 2013 and 2015, respectively.
The Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada headquartered company, which is ranked as North America’s leading producer of value-added frozen seafood, announced that net income in 2015 fell by 2.3% to $29.58 million compared to $30.3 million the previous year, as volume declined 7.5% to 284.4 million pounds from 307.6 million pounds in 2014. Overall sales of $1,001.5 million deceased by $50.1 million, or 4.8%.
The move to discontinue fish production in New Bedford, which does not affect scallop-processing activities at the site, which will continue to operate with a 25-person crew.
“In 2015, we made good progress on optimizing our supply chain and sufficiently increased capacity at our Lunenburg, Portsmouth (New Hampshire) and Newport News (Virginia) facilities such that they are able, collectively, to absorb the production of our New Bedford facility and still provide sufficient capacity to meet our growth objectives going forward,” said Keith Decker, president and chief executive officer. “The decision to cease the value-added fish operations in New Bedford is necessary to ensure our continued ability to compete and grow. We recognize this is a very difficult day for the employees impacted in New Bedford and want to thank them for their contribution to the American Pride business and High Liner Foods.”
The New Bedford plant, which was acquired from American Pride Seafood in 2013, is currently the company’s most underutilized manufacturing facility with annual output of approximately 40 million pounds. This production will be transferred to High Liner’s other factories by the end of the third quarter of 2016 and will require a workforce increase at those plants. The value-added fish operation at New Bedford currently employs 35 salaried employees and 167 hourly workers.
Meanwhile, the High Liner Foods board of directors has approved a quarterly dividend of $0.12 (Canadian) per common share payable on March 15 to stockholders of record on March 1, 2016.
