France’s Delanchy Group and Dutch seafood specialist Kotra Logistics, in which it has a 49% stake, have acquired Norway’s Oslo Seafood Center for an disclosed sum.
“The Kotra/Delanchy alliance has made it possible to combine the transport activities of the two groups with the logistics activities of Oslo Seafood Center. This will provide an opportunity to offer new services between the Nordic countries and the rest of Europe and the UK,” a spokesperson for Delanchy told The Loadstar.
Delanchy’s refrigerated transport and logistics network spans France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland with over 50 locations. Employing more than 3,500 staff, it also offers air and sea export services. The group has a fleet of 1,000 trucks, with Kotra Logistics adding a further 200 HGVs.
Oslo Seafood Center’s core business is the preparation and logistics of seafood products, particularly salmon, and it operates two warehouses, covering 13,000 sq metres, at the Norwegian capital’s rail terminal and at Oslo Airport.
Meanwhile, in a separate transaction, Slate Asset Management has acquired World Seafood Center (WSC), a 55,000 sq metre seafood refrigeration and distribution facility at Oslo Airport for approximately $123m from property developer Oslo Airport City.
“The World Seafood Center has established itself as a critical part of the food supply chain globally, providing consumers across Europe, America, and Asia with access to high-quality Norwegian seafood,” said Slate MD Sven Vollenbruch.
“As global demand for sustainable seafood continues to grow, we look forward to working together with the leading tenants at the World Seafood Center to further enhance the quality, efficiency, and resilience of this facility, ensuring it remains a major seafood export hub for years to come.”
One of the centre’s prominent tenants is Mowi, which is said to control approximately 20% of global seafood distribution and is the world’s largest farmer of Atlantic salmon.
While a good part of Norwegian salmon exports are heading for European markets by truck, at the Nordic Air Cargo Symposium held in April, delegates heard how air freighted volumes of the product had risen strongly in recent years – from 201,941 tons in 2018 to 264,408 tons last year – raising fears of a possible capacity squeeze ahead.
Last year, the biggest export destination was the US, followed by China, South Korea and Japan.
And in Europe, French family-owned group Olano in April snapped up New Bea Trasporti, based in Monopoli, on the Adriatic coast, in south-east Italy and the following month took over Ocean Movement Logistica, based in the port of Matosinhos, in Portugal.
Olano has an annual turnover of around €600m, employs 3,500 staff and operates 60 hubs 1.55m cubic metres of cold storage and a fleet of 1,500 trucks.