The Vancouver-based holding company behind Grimm’s and Bread Garden Express, along with a range of other specialty food businesses across Western Canada and Washington state, has expanded into central Canada with the acquisition of a Toronto-based seafood supplier.
Premium Brands Holdings Corp. (TSX:PBH) said Monday morning it would acquire a 76% interest in Maximum Seafood, which provides live seafood to the Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Premium’s president and CEO George Paleologou said in a statement: “Our existing seafood business, which has grown rapidly over the last several years to almost $30 million in annual sales, together with Maximum, will create an $85 million sales platform in a product category that is benefiting from a number of consumer trends.”
Those trends include an increased awareness of the health benefits of a diet that incorporates fresh seafood, he said, and Canada’s changing ethnic mix.
Premium’s share price, hovering near $12.70, did not fluctuate during mid-morning trading Monday.
Premium’s last acquisition was in April, when it took an 80% interest in Vancouver-based specialty pasta and sauce maker Duso’s Enterprises Ltd. for $5.6 million. (See: “Premium Brands buys interest in local pasta and sauce maker” – BIV Daily, Thursday, April 1, 2010.)