PepsiCo Sells Its Coqueiro Seafood & Tuna Businessff
17 October 2011
Brazil The Brazilian food company Camil Alimentos has acquired Coqueiro, the country’s second largest seafood company.
The USD 800 million-turnover Brazilian rice and bean producer bought Coqueiro from PepsiCo last Friday, after three months of negotiations.
Its participation in the fish sector is through the brands Alcyon, Pescador, Navegantes an Costa Brava, after acquiring in May this year Femepe Industria e Comercio de Pescado, the third largest canned fish processor in Brazil, behind Coqueiro and Gomes da Costa.
The deal, which was for an undisclosed amount, includes two Coqueiro fish processing plants, one in Sao Goncalo (Rio de Janeiro) and another in Itajai (Santa Catarina). Coqueiro has 1,500 employees which will incorporate to Camil Alimentos.
Coqueiro, which was founded in 1937, dominates the Brazilian canned seafood market along with Gomes da Costa and Femepe. The company’s two canning facilities produce more than 30,000 tons of tuna and sardines annually.
This is Camil Alimentos’ second purchase of a major Brazilian seafood canner in the past months – potentially making it the largest seafood canner in Brazil, close in size to Calvo Group’s Gomes da Costa.
Camil Alimentos estimates a total turnover of BRL 1.8 billion (USD 1,018 million) this year. With this deal it is looking to diversify its production further, which so far has concentrated mostly on rice and beans (80%). Fish could account for up to 30 percent of its sales in five years, according to Camil Alimentos’s statement.
