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- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Food | Agriculture
Woocheen, the global ocean-health business owned by Alaska Native Corporation Sealaska, has expanded its footprint in the United Kingdom with two strategic transactions involving the UK’s largest crab processor and a subsea engineering firm based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Terms of the deals, both announced last month, were not disclosed.
New England Seafood International (NESI), a unit of Woocheen, said it acquired the trade and assets of Blue Sea Food Company, a Devon-based crab processor, from Kroll Advisory. The deal secured more than 160 jobs at Blue Sea and stabilized operations for the largest crab processor in the UK, which processes more than 1,500 metric tons of live crab annually.
Blue Sea Food, known for its Wild Bay brand, serves wholesale, foodservice, and retail markets while exporting to Asia and Europe. The acquisition allows NESI to reenter the shellfish market, a sector it initially entered in 1991. NESI plans to integrate Blue Sea into its existing operations, which already supply a range of seafood, including tuna and wild Alaskan salmon, to UK grocery chains and foodservice providers, according to a statement.
“The opportunity to participate in a new species for NESI, applying the same consumer-led ‘plate-to-sea’ approach that we take to other species, represents an exciting opportunity to create further category value,” Dan Aherne, CEO of Woocheen Global Seafood, said in a statement. Aherne praised the commitment and energy of Blue Sea’s team, adding that the quick acquisition saved jobs at the UK-based Paignton facility, which plays a key role in the country’s crab industry.
In a separate transaction, Woocheen announced a merger with DME Systems Ltd., a subsea engineering firm serving the telecommunications and offshore wind industries. DME specializes in building and modifying subsea vehicles and control systems for tasks such as laying cables on the seafloor, leveraging advanced expertise in automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, according to a statement. Launched in 2021, the company now has a team of 25 and has already moved three times to accommodate its increasing need for space.
In joining forces with DME, Woocheen is broadening its expertise and capabilities in a way that sets it apart from other enterprises in geosciences, according to Woocheen CEO Terry Downes.
“DME is a company of engineers with a history of solving tough subsea problems,” Downes said in a statement. “Their world-class expertise, coupled with our geotechnical and geophysical abilities, will give us the in-house capacity to develop unique equipment that is customized for our clients’ needs offshore, nearshore and onshore. It also means we can respond even more quickly and safely when problems inevitably arise while conducting investigations 2,000 meters under water.”
The news of the two transactions follows a July 2024 Insider Media report that Woocheen had hired MC2, a London-based marketing communications agency, to accelerate the growth of its geosciences capabilities in the UK In the story, Downes said, “There is growing momentum around ocean health in the UK, with critical work happening across the region to improve the outlook for our oceans and ultimately protect our environment. We’ve seen world-class expertise within niche areas of geosciences in the UK, which is why expanding our work and presence here is a real focus.”
