Is This Seafood Company's Most Recent Purchase Checking all the Acquisition Boxes?

Picture credit: Jonathan Hogue on Unsplash

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.

Managing acquisitions to help a company grow isn’t easy. In addition to managing any post-acquisition integration, it can be vital that a purchase allies with a company’s strategic vision.

When it comes to Miami-based Blue Star Foods Corp. BSFC, the company believes its most recent acquisition — the third in the space of two years — checks all the boxes.

Blue Star agreed to acquire certain technological assets of South Carolina-based Gault Seafood LLC on Dec. 14, with the purchase expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

The reasoning behind the acquisition? A company focused on sustainable fishing and aquaculture must find an acquisition target that can incorporate those practices. The acquisition also gives Blue Star a new species of crab and uses advanced technologies to help growth.

“The acquisition of Gault Seafood follows an M&A strategy that we have established for ourselves, which is to acquire new innovative technologies, or companies, where we can layer in our sustainable resource management model or that, diversifies our offering of marine protein species,” Blue Start Chairman and CEO John Keeler said at the time of the acquisition.

Sourcing Closer to Home

Until now, Blue Star has sourced its crab from Asian countries with species such as the Blue Swimming Crab and the Red Swimming Crab from Vietnam, Indonesia, China, and the Philippines. The Gault purchase will allow the company to harvest the Atlantic Blue Crab. 

In addition, Blue Star says it will be able to harvest the crab outside of its main season because of Gault’s advanced Recirculatory Aquaculture Systems (RAS) technology that can alter the molting cycle of the crab, allowing for off-season harvesting.

Typically, the existing crab season starts in March in Louisiana and moves north every couple of weeks until reaching New Jersey around September, said Rodrigo Mezerhane, senior project manager at Blue Star. 

“Outside of this window, it’s almost impossible to get any of this product and bring it to the North American market,” he said. “We believe with this technology we will be able to satisfy consumers’ desire to enjoy the Atlantic Blue Crab all year long.”

Blue Star products are available in a wide range of supermarkets in the United States including stores operated by Walmart Inc. WMT, Costco Wholesale Corp. COST, Kroger Co. KR-owned King Soopers and Golub Capital BDC Inc. GBDC-owned Price Chopper.

And soon, there may be some Atlantic Blue Crab added to the company’s product portfolio.

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.