New Zealand fishing company Sealord has floated proposals to switch its Nelson fresh fish activity to a seasonal basis, following a review of its business model pinpointing a need for changes in its retail branded frozen fish business including its coated factory.
Under this proposal, the wetfish and by-products factories and fishing vessel Thomas Harrison would operate during the hoki season from May to September. This would affect 59 jobs.
Sealord CEO Doug Paulin said it is a difficult process for affected staff, and pledged that the company would do what it can to support them. A decision on whether to switch to seasonal operation is expected by mid-October.
‘We would prioritise roles for our hard-working wetfish and coated factory staff during hoki season should these proposals go ahead, and they wish to come back,’ he said, commenting that the company has potentially been facing a full shut down its fresh fish trawler and all land-based operations at its Nelson site.
‘Instead of closing our Nelson site completely, which would impact significantly more permanent employees and be a major economic hit for the region, this seasonal proposal would mean that we’re able to retain the majority of our Nelson-based operations and the jobs associated with them. This also includes our cold store and dry store, and office-based support roles,’ he said.
‘In total we would retain 81 permanent jobs and 400 seasonal roles, and save over 90% of the economic benefits to the region.’
He commented that this is driven by the need to adapt to the challenging economic environment with escalating operating costs, deflated global commodity pricing for frozen fish, decreasing volume and ever-increasing regulatory compliance costs over the last ten years.
‘The export commodity products produced in our wetfish factory in Nelson are loss making in every month except for in hoki season. This loss has been exacerbated in recent times with price drops at the same time as costs have risen sharply and the volume of fish available to be harvested and processed outside of hoki season has fallen,’ he stated.
‘The reality is that for Sealord Group to be economically sustainable long term, we must reduce our costs and decrease complexity to focus on our core business of fishing. Customer demand for wild harvest, sustainably caught New Zealand fish remains strong but the environment we operate in is increasingly complex and uncertain. This proposal to transition to a seasonal operation reduces our operating costs, increases returns from these commodity export products to a viable level and allows us to invest in what we do best, which is catching and processing fish during the hoki season.’
