Seafood swoop creates £25 million food service-focused specialist

Jaines Seafood buys-out catering division of New England Seafood International in undisclosed deal

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David LaisterBusiness Editor (Humber)

17:40, 25 OCT 2019

Chris Sparkes welcomes Mike Woods on board at Jaines Seafood. (Image: Grimsby Telegraph)

A Grimsby fish business has bought in more than £10 million of work after it acquired the food service arm of a national operator in the town.

Jaines Seafood has acquired the non-retail division of New England Seafood International – the Surrey-based business that arrived in the Humber with the buy-out of Albert Darnell back in 2016.

For Chris Sparkes, managing director, the deal represents a significant step forward in an industry familiar with consolidation and economies of scale.

“It is a huge investment commitment for us to do this,” he said of the union that will create a £25 million operation on the North Wall. “We are trying to future proof the business and ensure sustainability. We can see the opportunity now to put us at the forefront of the sector of the seafood industry that we work in.

“We have some exclusive business, food service business we have been working at for a long time. This addition of the NESI business, with some cross-over, will bring benefits to our customers because we are not fighting each other in the purchasing market place.

New chapter: Chris Sparkes beside a wall showing the development of the business, founded in 1947. (Image: Grimsby Telegraph)

“It will provide a £10 million to £12 million uplift in turnover, we are around £15 million now, and we are targeting around £25 million next year. It also keeps the support for the local auction. We are one of the major purchasers of fish on the market every morning, and the combined buying power keeps that going.”

Regarded as the ‘original Albert Darnell business’, for former owner Mike Woods – who remained with NESI after the original buy-out – it marks a return to the base he traded from for more than 20 years. Having moved Albert Darnell to the flagship business park in 2012, he goes back to his roots with a 26-strong team swelling numbers there to 70.

Of the opportunity, Mr Sparkes said: “Together we can bring benefits of buying power and pass them on to the customer base long-term.

“We are looking more and more long term with larger customers, and Mike and his team’s sourcing contacts will help us tremendously with that. It is also bringing quite a large portfolio of shops and restaurants in the south that we don’t have.”

On the physical integration, he added: “We have been planning for the last three months, and have re-configured the building to absorb the uplift in staff, and it has all worked well. There is a lot of work to do, there are no gifts and we have got to knuckle down and get two businesses running as one.

Inside Jaines Seafood, shortly after a major overhaul was completed in 2015. (Image: Grimsby Telegraph)

“He has brought his team in here and we have integrated that part of th business within ours and it is a good fit. We have picked up some very skillful, experienced people – filleters, sales staff and administration to handle that.”

Mr Sparkes, who served on the board of Grimsby Fish Merchants’ Association with Mr Woods for nearly a decade, revealed how he made enquiries when he heard NESI was looking to expand the retail side of the business.

Jaines provides a full filleting solution, be it skinned, boned or smoked, with 30-plus species dealt with daily. Mr Sparkes prides himself on offering “more solutions for customers, meeting their needs, and rethinking the way fish is presented to chefs”.

He thanked Dan Wilson and his team at HSBC “who have been incredibly supportive and worked very hard” to aid Jaines in the undisclosed deal.

Mr Woods, who will become a director at Jaines and first worked from the Kemp Road site in 1981, believes the squeeze from retail will leave fewer businesses capable of fulfilling the food service sector’s needs. “I am very confident about the future,” he said. “The consolidation of this business puts us in a good place. Going forward I am totally optimistic.”

The deal has been described as creating a "powerful force" for the town's cluster by stakeholders.

Simon Dwyer, Grimsby FMA secretariat and a senior figure behind the Seafood Grimsby and Humber cluster organisation, said: "Jaines, under the leadership of Chris Sparkes ,is one of the cluster's star-performing family-owned processors, with a strong reputation within the ��Ƶ's food service sector. Chris Sparkes, Mike Woods and their respected teams coming together, will be a powerful force for the Grimsby seafood cluster and allow Europarc's New England team to focus on their successful core retail business."