Honestly, if they needed a feed factory, they would have bought up the idea earlier, during the last CR. It is a good point the scale-ability of the business is there, with leases already in-place, which can be exploited at any point. If they want to do something involving feed production, it would become more cost effective with a much higher level of biomass (and that is a possibility if they have a large cash win with the ex-feed supplier).
The business at this point is quite interesting to me, because I've been in cold storage in a place which processed fish as well. I've seen it first hand and value added processing etc. A switch is clicked when I see the likes of Terry O'Brien connected with the company. My feeling is there are networks of connections, which can be exploited. Put a price on everything and you'll probably end up being off the mark. Watch things evolve over the following year
-------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- Simplot CEO Terry O'Brien to take over as chairman of Clean Seas
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Terry O'Brien has been at Simplot Australia for 24 years. Georgia Metaxas
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by Simon Evans
Terry O'Brien, who has been chief executive of one of Australia's biggest food groups for 16 years, is preparing to exit in late 2017 and says he has his "eyes wide open" ahead of a new post next year as chairman of an ASX-listed aquaculture company in a highly volatile sector.
O'Brien runs Simplot Australia, a big supplier to supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths, which produces a host of food products including Birds Eye, Edgell, Leggo's and Lean Cuisine along with canned fish brands John West and I&J frozen seafood products. It also makes the Chiko Roll, a staple in fish and chip shops and something of a cultural icon that hit its peak as a fast-food snack in the 1970s.
A handover period to a new chief executive at Simplot Australia, which is owned by United States food giant J.R. Simplot, is earmarked to happen from March and Mr O'Brien will officially depart in August after a career spanning 24 years with the company. Simplot Australia has annual revenues of around $1.4 billion.
"I'm seeking to build a solid portfolio of directorships," he said on Tuesday. The first is as chairman of ASX-listed Clean Seas Tuna, which has been on a rollercoaster ride as the world's largest producer of yellowtail kingfish, outside of Japan.
Clean Seas is headquartered in Port Lincoln in South Australia, the home of a raft of tuna barons in a region that has more millionaires per capita than Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's electorate in Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs.
Mr O'Brien has known one of the original tuna pioneers, Hagen Stehr, who is also a director of Clean Seas, for years. Simplot also has a small shareholding in Clean Seas.
Mr O'Brien, who is also chairman of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, said he is under no illusion about the tough road ahead in the volatile world of aquaculture.
"I'm going in eyes wide open. I know it's a huge challenge," he said.
He will officially join the board of Clean Seas in early 2017 and will take over as chairman in April.
Volatile times for aquaculture firms
The man he will replace at Clean Seas, New Zealand aquaculture veteran Paul Steere, said on Tuesday that aquaculture was still a young industry, and there had been severe volatility at various companies around the globe.
"There's companies all over the world that have been to hell and back," Mr Steere said.
It has been frustrating at times. But the overarching themes of global demand for fish driven by a desire for healthier eating and health benefits would only keep accelerating, he said.
"It is character-building," he said. Companies in Chile had been hit hard by disease, but the industry was learning from each mishap. "It's often what you don't know that causes a problem."
Aquaculture, where fish are commercially farmed, now represented 44 per cent of the total global fish harvest. This compared with 10 per cent in 1985.
Mr Steere said Mr O'Brien went through a rigorous selection process involving external consultants before he was chosen to lead the boardroom for the next phase of Clean Seas' corporate life.
"We scouted out. There was probably a list of 15 people," Mr Steere said.
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