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Seafood International March 3rd 2009
TOBY BAXENDALE
CEO, Seafood Holdings
People need to eat and seafood is as popular as ever. I am sure seafood consumption will continue to grow as more people become aware of the health benefits.
The big question is how will people adapt their eating patterns and where will they be eating with lower budgets?
Broadly speaking and needless to say, there are always exceptions. High-end items such as lobsters will be considered very discretionary expenditures and will suffer, as will other top-end species. Contrast this with cheap species such as mackerel, whose consumption will grow. Likewise with the lesser sub-species of the Gadus family: they will become more popular as people will not want to pay the full price for prime cod. If the recession lasts long enough to cement these new eating habits, then this down shifting may well become a permanent feature of life.
We will not see high- leverage lending and buyout deals happening in the foreseeable future, thus more focus on having a strong balance sheer for its own sake will be the way of the future. Only those with strong balancesheets will survive.
For sure , Seafood Holdings has suffered, like anyone else in the world.
We needed to act as soon as the confidence went from the market, otherwise we would have moved into a loss-making position.
Adversity breeds a lot of positive things, for every £1 of gross profit lost, we have taken out £1.60 in costs.
The human tragedy in this is immense and should not be overlooked. but we had to act very quickly to protect the largest majority of the business. Going into February, we were the leanest we have been in a long time. Our productivity is through the roof and we are well-positioned to explit all opportunities in the coming months and years of the recession.
Customers looking to lower their costs are now picking up the phone to us, this has been accelerated by the demands of the recession.
I attribute all of this to sound vision and leadership, a very strong and committed management and, in general,staff that have come up to the mark; they all amaze me.
I started the business in 1991 and was told by most that this was the worst recession since the 1930s. It lasted for two years as we bumped along its bottom. Regrettably, I think talk of us being out at the back end of 2009 is wishful thinking.
