News / Kuehne + Nagel hooks specialist seafood air freight forwarder Salmosped

Photo: Kuehne + Nagel

Kuehne + Nagel (KN) is set to further expand into the seafood logistics market, agreeing to buy specialist Norwegian air freight forwarder Salmosped.

The purchase price for the 100% share offer was not disclosed, but KN did reveal that Salmosped “generated turnover of Sfr118m ($128.9m) in 2020 and handled approximately 63,000 tonnes of goods”.

According to Salmosped, its revenues are generated by 19 employees, leading Loadstar Premium editor Alessandro Pasetti to note: “That, if true, implies a whopping Sfr6.2m revenue per head – per employee!”

But it also indicates how valuable the salmon trade has become – according to the Norwegian Seafood Council, salmon is by far the largest seafood product the country exports, in terms of both volumes and value.

Last year, Norway’s salmon exports were 1.1m tonnes, 2% up on 2019, with a total value of Nkr70.1bn ($8.05bn), while for the first half of this year, they rose year on year by a further 12%.

Based on these figures, The Loadstar has calculated Salmosped’s market share at 5.7%.

However, it also appears the acquisition is part of concerted efforts to build up a seafood subdivision within KN’s perishables business, and it now has operations in most of the main salmon production centres.

“Within the perishables segment, the bolt-on acquisition of Salmosped enhances Kuehne + Nagel’s global network in seafood as it complements existing operations in Halifax, Vancouver (both Canada), London (UK) and Santiago de Chile,” it said.

Dennis Verkooy, SVP global perishables & head of carrier management air logistics at KN, explained: “Perishables logistics is a strong growth driver for Kuehne + Nagel. While we have been present in the seafood business in Norway for years, today’s acquisition strengthens our footprint in air freight exports from this important seafood-producing country.

“We are looking forward to enlarging our Norwegian team with Salmosped’s specialists,” he added.