Seafood becomes the Schörghuber Corporate Group’s fourth business division
Munich, 13 September 2011. Schörghuber Stiftung & Co. Holding KG is taking over 100 percent of the share capital of Inversiones Stefal SpA from the family’s holding company, Blue Lion GmbH. Inversiones Stefal SpA is the sole shareholder in Productos del Mar Ventisqueros S.A., which is involved in salmon farming. In the 2010 business year, the company’s 1,200 to 1,700 employees – depending on the season – generated revenues of USD 106.9 million and a profit after taxes of USD 0.9 million. EBIT amounted to USD .8 million and EBITDA to USD 10.6 million.
Striving for sustainable profitable growth
The business volume of Inversiones Stefal SpA – and Productos del Mar Ventisqueros S.A. in particular – has thus reached a significant size. It is intended that the company continue to grow in a sustainable and, above all, profitable manner in the coming years. The company has everything it needs to do this: It covers the entire value chain – from fish spawn to fish fillet – it has high production and processing standards, and it has its tried-and-tested health management practices.
In addition, integration of the company in Schörghuber Stiftung & Co. Holding KG, and thus in its control mechanisms, is intended to secure this ambitious growth trajectory.
In the Schörghuber Corporate Group, the business area involving seafood will be added to the group’s existing business divisions, Construction & Real Estate, Beverages, and Hotels, as a fourth division.
Farmed salmon enjoys huge growth rates
In view of the worldwide increase in per capita protein consumption in connection with an increasing world population, salmon farming offers considerable advantages compared to other sources of protein. Farmed salmon also offers valuable nutrients that contribute to a healthy, low-fat diet. It also has the potential to surpass wild salmon with regard to quality since every step in the production chain – from the fish spawn through to the finished product – can now be traced and is – especially in Chile – strictly regulated.
An enormous increase in the demand for salmon can be observed worldwide. In recent years, countries like Russia, China, South Korea and, above all, Brazil, have been joining the traditional key import markets Japan and USA as major customers. Brazil, with its booming economy, is a steadily growing market in which Chile enjoys significant competitive advantages due to its geographical proximity and a free trade agreement between the two countries.
The growth potential offered by the Chilean salmon industry is enormous. As the result of unchecked overexploitation of production capacities at the beginning of the century, an aggressive viral epidemic in 2007 led to widespread devastation of Chilean salmon stocks. This resulted in radical rethinking within the industry and to the introduction of strict regulation by the government. While Chile has now gradually rebuilt its salmon stocks, Norway, its largest competitor worldwide, is currently nearing its maximum capacity. This in turn puts Chile in a position to play a disproportionately large role in the development of the global market. In 2011, Chile will boast the second largest increase in Atlantic salmon production worldwide.
Market presence in Chile since the mid-eighties
Chile is anything but virgin business territory for the family of entrepreneurs from Munich. As early as the mid-eighties, Josef Schörghuber secured himself a majority holding in the brewery Companía Cervecerías Unidas in a joint venture with the Chilean industrial family Luksic. As a result of an extensive transfer of know-how, the brewery has since succeeded in expanding its market leadership to an impressive 90- percent share of the market. Today, Companía Cervecerías Unidas is part of the network of breweries belonging to the joint venture partner Heineken. The property development activities carried out over the years in Chile’s capital, Santiago, also enjoyed success. In 2001, the Schörghuber family acquired a 51-percent shareholding in Productos del Mar Ventisqueros S.A., which was founded in 1989, prior to taking over the entire company in 2010.
About the Schörghuber Corporate Group
The owner-managed Schörghuber Corporate Group, which was founded in 1954 and has its headquarters in Munich, is successfully involved in the business sectors hotels, aircraft leasing, beverages, real estate and construction in both the national and international arenas. The Hotels division, with the management company Arabella Hospitality Group, operates 43 hotels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on the Balearic island of Majorca and in South Africa. In the aircraft leasing sector, Bavaria International Aircraft Leasing GmbH & Co. KG has successfully positioned itself as a privately-owned aircraft leasing company. Brau Holding International GmbH & Co. KGaA, a joint venture with Heineken N.V., is Germany’s third largest brewery group and comprises the Paulaner Brewery Group, the Kulmbacher Group and the Südwest Group. Bayerische Bau und Immobilien Group, which bundles all the real estate, property development and prefabricated housing activities of the Schörghuber Corporate Group, is one of the largest full-service real estate companies in Germany. Common values – diversity, quality and growth – forge a bond between the four business divisions. The group’s approximately 5,400 employees ensure that customers enjoy the benefits provided by these shared values every single day. www.sug-munich.com.
PRESSEKONTAKT
Schörghuber Unternehmensgruppe
Bernhard Taubenberger, Leiter Kommunikation & Marketing
Denninger Straße 165, 81925 München, Telefon +49 89 9238-258, Telefax +49 89 9238-114258
be.taubenberger@sug-munich.com, www.sug-munich.com
