Top view of operators working at a First Seafood salmon processing plant.
Photo: First Seafood video screenshot.
First Seafood AS, a Norwegian company specializing in custom seafood processing, announced yesterday the acquisition of 100% of the shares in the Danish seafood processing company Insula Hvide Sande A/S. According to the announcement on its LinkedIn page, the transaction was completed on September 1, 2024, to strengthen the company's fillet capacity.
Since its founding in 2014, First Seafood offered fresh and frozen seafood products to the HORECA segment and export markets until, after becoming part of the Insula Group in 2016, in September 2022 it began operating a new salmon filleting plant in Kongsvinger, Norway.
In 2024, the company has opened another brand-new fillet facility in Bergen with the aim of doubling its production capacity. Now, with the acquisition of Insula Hvide Sande on the Danish west coast, First Seafood will not only strengthen its fillet capacity but will also be closer to its customers and target markets.
Also belonging to the Insula Group, in its case since 2018, the core business of the Hvide Sande plant is filleting fish for packaging, sealing and freezing, specializing in nitrogen freezing, a process that preserves the quality and consistency of the fish after thawing.
"We are very pleased to take over Insula Hvide Sande. With this acquisition, we are increasing our total fillet capacity," said Roy Olsen, CCO of First Seafood.
"The location provides us with a broader sourcing base, and we aim to purchase salmon from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Scotland, in addition to Norwegian salmon. We are now closer to our customers in Europe and in overseas markets," he continued. "We look forward to the future."
Also commenting on the acquisition, First Seafood's CEO, Andreas Sundnes noted that First Seafood and Insula Hvide Sande will not only share the future but that there is also common ground in both companies' past.
"First Seafood AS was originally a whitefish and shellfish company until we decided to build our own factory in Kongsvinger. In other words, First Seafood shares a similar history with our subsidiary in Hvide Sande," he said.
"The ability and willingness to win is a core value at First Seafood AS, and I am confident that we share this value with our new colleagues," he concluded.