Alliance Select acquires salmon processor

MANILA, Philippines - Alliance Select Foods International Inc. (ASFI), the leading canned tuna manufacturer in the country, has gobbled up Spence, a US-based processor of smoked salmon and seafood, making it the largest salmon processor in the region.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, ASFI said its recently-established US-based subsidiary ASFI Choice Foods Inc. signed a deal to acquire 100 percent of Spence for $8.5 million. To partly finance the acquisition, ASFI will conduct a stock rights offering whose terms have yet to be set by the board.

Located in Brockton Massachusetts, Spence was formed in 1990 and has established itself as a leading processor of premium quality smoked seafood.

The company’s products are available in the leading supermarket chains across the US. These projects are marketed under the Spence brand as well as the house brands of these supermarkets.

The company’s third smoked salmon venture will help it establish beachhead in the lucrative seafood market in the US, ASFI said.

ASFI is engaged in tuna processing, canning and exporting of canned tuna products with facilities in Gen. Santos City in Mindanao and in Bitung, in the island of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It exports to Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and South America, and is a “private label manufacturer” of canned tuna and processes and tuna cans using its customers’ brands.

It also processes the by-products and scraps from its tuna processing operations into fishmeal, which it sells to Philippine and foreign feed millers.

The company has a marketing representative office in Bangkok, Thailand to tap the network of buyers and brokers who use Thailand as a base to buy canned tuna.

ASFI also has a 40-percent stake in FDCP Inc., a can-making company, which ensures the availability of quality cans at competitive prices and sustainable supply.