Big Glory Bay lays groundwork for expansion next year

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – A unit of listed tuna and salmon products exporter Alliance Select Foods International, Inc. is laying the groundwork for expansion after gaining stable foothold in the fresh and processed salmon market locally and overseas.

The five-year-old Big Glory Bay Salmon and Seafood Company (BGB) is now scouting for sites for new fishing farms in Southern New Zealand in addition to its two existing salmon farms.

BGB is also expected to begin supplying by the first quarter of 2014 fresh and processed salmon products to Woolworths, the largest supermarket chain in Australia.

Big Glory Bay was formed through a partnership between Alliance Select and New Zealand’s Prime Foods NZ Ltd. It operates a state-of-the art salmon processing and smoking plant in Barangay Tambler in this city.

BGB Business Unit head Juan Paolo Araneta told visiting reporters that the company has recently been accredited by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection service (AQIS) to sell salmon products to the country.

“We got the clearance to sell to Australia processed salmon, the raw materials for which did not come from Australia,” he said. Australia only allows the entry of salmon products from New Zealand unless certified.

“Australia is a huge market for us other than Japan. Our General Santos plant has been certified,” said Araneta.

He said the company has also secured the “strict” accreditation process of Woolworths for the supply of salmon products under its house brand Signature Range.

“We are hoping to begin supplying them by the first quarter of 2014.

BGB currently sources most of its salmon from Japan, Chile and New Zealand. It manufactures the Prime brand for export to Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and New Zealand among others; and the Superfish brand for the local market.

The salmon used for all its export products are sourced from New Zealand to conform to the quality requirements of the export market.

The company introduced Superfish to the local market in Dec. 2012 to get a piece of the growing demand for quality salmon products.

Superfish is a line of fresh and processed Pacific salmon cuts that is priced competitively against other prime salmon cut products in the market.

The Superfish brand currently has three product lines: fresh salmon cuts, smoked salmon cuts and canned salmon cuts.

“After five years of exporting, we realized that there is room in the Philippines for expansion. That’s why we are developing this market,” said Araneta. “The volume that we sell domestically might eventually be as large as what we export.”

He estimates that since Superfish was launched, BGB has cornered about 30 percent of the prime salmon cut market.

“We have to eat into our profits by as much as 20 percent to enter the market,” said Araneta.

In this product segment, BGB is pitted against local firms Royal Norwegian Seafood Corp. and Cold Storage Seafood.

“So our domestic market is growing. We have cornered about 30 percent of the market,” said Araneta of BGB’s distribution which is particularly strong in supermarkets and other channels in Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao, Palawan, and Cagayan de Oro.

The Prime export brand, he said, has cornered around 90 percent of the New Zealand salmon market.

“The export market is very particular about the kind of salmon. These are sophisticated markets that are raw material sensitive as opposed to the local market which is price-sensitive,” said Araneta.

The company’s processing facility produces two metric tons (2,000 kilograms) of processed salmon per day on two shifts.

BGB currently has over 70 employees directly engaged in salmon processing.

The plant uses customized technology from the US.

“The technology we use is our competitive advantage,” said Araneta.

He said the company would embark on an aggressive marketing campaign next year after laying down the distribution network for Superfish.

“This year is all about laying down the distribution network,” said Araneta. “By early next year, we may have to expand (the production capacity) but we are still determining the volume.”