Brasmar eyes acquisitions to expand market share in Europe, grows in Brazil

Portuguese processor Brasmar, which is owned 50% by MCH Private Equity, has diversified its range of products in order to “become one stop shop for its clients” as it plans acquisitions to expand its customer base, the firm’s CEO, Sergio Silva, told Undercurrent News. The firm is very well diversified in terms of products, which allows it to have a very wide client base, he said, during the Conxemar trade show. 

Brasmar has been able to diversify its clients across different markets, a strategy that the firm is planning to continue, MCH’s partner Andres Pelaez Collado, told Undercurrent, pointing out that, instead, most of Brasmar’s competitors “depend on five, six large clients, which account for a large part of their sales”.

Palaez stressed that Brasmar’s strategy would be to continue growing organically. He added that acquisitions were also considered. “We are actively analyzing potential consolidation opportunities in the sector all around Europe. We are not pressure to do any acquisition soon but it could be because we are looking at many potential acquisitions”. An acquisition would complement the already fast organic growth in order to be “one of the main companies in this consolidation process around the world”, Pelaez said.

The potential target would be a company that “complements” Brasmar’s business, but “in the same range of products”, in frozen seafood; a processor or a trader with a diversified client base “that does not depend on three or four clients”. “We want to buy market share,” Silva added, noting that so far the firm did not find a company in Spain that matched they criteria and that they were looking at other European countries as well.

Growth in Brazil

Brasmar is growing very quickly in Brazil as well, with a firm it created three years ago, Marnobre. Initially it started selling cod, but it has extended its portfolio of products to its range in Portugal.

Processing and product range

The firm has invested more than €22 million in its northern Portugal plant expansion and modernization, which will be completed at the end of this year, with a capacity of about 2,300 metric tons per month. It also built a new warehouse, with a capacity of 6,000 pallets. The firm processes octopus and cod, which account about 20% of Brasmar’s sales. It has diversified its portfolio to over 1,000 SKUs. Portugal is one of the world’s largest countries in terms of fish consumption, with an average of over 60 kilograms per person per year. This allows Brasmar to “work with most types of seafood”.

Brasmar’s large base of suppliers, over 1,000, allows the firm not to depend on any specific market or supplier, Pelaez and Silva said. The firm plans to increase its revenue to €240 million-€250m in four years, up from an expected €160m in 2017. Further penetration on the countries in which has already presence, in Europe and Brazil mainly, will be key to achieve this objective, Silva said.

Brasmar is also active in trading. About 80% of the firm’s sales are made of branded products. Brasmar has created a new logo, renewed its packages and also created a new brand, Argus, to diversify some of its sales. The firm sells only frozen products, apart from dry salted cod.