New Delhi, February 13, 2020: The Indian shrimp processor Royale Marine Impex is nearing the completion of its second factory in the state of Andhra Pradesh, which will add a further 10,000 metric tons of factory capacity once completed, according to company director Marimuthu Sudhakaran.
The factory, originally announced in May 2016, is in collaboration with the UK firm Sykes Seafood. Although Sykes has no financial stake in the new plant, it has a supply arrangement in place with Royale Marine to receive processed shrimp directly from the new facility, he told Undercurrent News, during the 22nd India International Seafood Show, which took place in Kochi from Feb. 7-9.
The new factory cost Royale Marine $5 million to construct, Sudhakaran confirmed, with construction due to be completed by June. This will add significantly to the firm’s current production total of 8,000t from its operational factory.
Although Royale Marine currently sells headless shrimp to China, with peeled and frozen shrimp going to the US and EU, Sudhakaran told Undercurrent that he hopes to add a cooked line to its processing plant in the near future.
The expansion of Royale Marine comes as Sykes is in growth mode in Europe.
At the end of 2019, the UK processor announced a deal for Dutch shrimp processor Klaas Puul Beheer, from private equity H2 Equity Partners.
Top executives with Dutch Seafood Company, the H2-backed parent of Klaas Puul and Foppen Groep, a salmon smoker, said the volatility of the North Sea shrimp and the lower-than-expected cross-selling synergies are two drivers for the sale.
Alan Dale, CEO of Sykes, said he’s not put off at all by the ups and downs of the North Sea shrimp, also known as brown or grey shrimp. Dale said he'd prefer to buy Klaas Puul than Young's Seafood, the UK's largest processor, which Sykes was also in the running for according to the reports published in undercurrentnews.com.
The deal will be good for the team at Klaas Puul -- which Sykes plans to keep operating under the same name and continue to invest in -- as well as its fishermen suppliers, Dale previously told Undercurrent.
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