Japan-based seafood major Nissui has acquired local salmon processor Musashino Foods Co.
Nissui said it moved for Musashino because of its “strengths in processed seafood products for raw consumption”.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Nissui said it would take on all of Musashino's staff.
Musashino will be a production base for the group’s “processed marine foods” such as sushi and sashimi, Nissui said.
“Taking advantage of this acquisition, Nissui will utilise its production capabilities to begin producing products for raw consumption, such as sushi ingredients, using Nissui's domestic and international farmed fish and wild fish,” the company added.
“As a first step, we will collaborate with a salmon farming business in Hirota Bay in the same prefecture and city to produce raw edible products from the fish caught after June of this year, with the aim of developing this into one of our main businesses in the future.”
According to Nissui, Musashino, founded in 1991, is headquartered in the city of Rikuzentakata. The business employed 51 people as of 31 March 2023. It also has offices in Osaka and Hokkaido.
Tokyo-based Nissui produces and sells frozen prepared foods, shelf-stable foods and seafood.
It has subsidiaries outside Japan, such as Gorton’s in the US, which makes frozen prepared marine foods for retail, Cité Marine in France, a chilled goods producer, and Three Oceans Fish Company in the UK, which processes fried white fish.
In February, Nissui said it planned to invest in expanding production capacity at two of its US and EU subsidiaries.
The group said it will invest a total of Y17m ($113,122) into the Massachusetts-based Gorton’s Co. and Cité Marine, in Kervignac, France, a statement indicates.
The investment was lined up to build Gorton’s line of shrimp products and needed to find a larger production site in order to do so, Nissui said at the time.
In December, Nissui acquired a majority stake in Netherlands-based fish producer Maxima Seafood.
The deal for Netherlands-based Maxima was conducted through Nissui’s Denmark-based subsidiary Nordic Seafood.
