Known as the king of salmon, businessman Glenn Cooke is about to expand his fishing business with the acquisition of a well-known Galician company. Of Canadian origin, he was excited by the arrival of his company in Spain, where he already had a business that he has been acquiring, like so many others around the world, in recent years. The key to his success, according to himself, has been failure. A long journey that has made him one of the most powerful men in the fishing sector and that, now, is about to crown him as the new captain of Pescanova.
The purchase agreement comes just as the former president of the Spanish company, Manuel Fernández de Sousa, has just entered prison to serve the 6 years to which he was sentenced for manipulating Pescanova's accounts and causing its bankruptcy. The change of hands will also be a change of scenery. Cooke will take over the largest fishing company in Spain, giving it a financial and commercial boost to position it once again at the top. Because if someone knows about difficult moments, it is precisely the Canadian businessman.
When he was young no one bet on him, not even his father, at first. Somewhat rebellious, he refused to study Economics at the University of New Brunswick (Canada) and preferred to start his own business. It went from failure to failure until his perseverance paid off. "There is no better way to lose your pride and develop humility than to fail and become an embarrassment to your family and yourself," Cooke said when, ironically, years later he was awarded an Honoris Causa Doctorate by the same university.
At the age of 21, his father Gifford Cooke and his brother Michael, one a marine mechanic and the other a worker on a fishing boat, respectively, decided to join the new project that the young man had in hand in 1985. The family thus set up the Kelly Cove fish farm Salmon, located on the Atlantic coast of Canada. That small business had just two cages in which some 5,000 salmon were raised in captivity. Over time, that family illusion has ended up becoming a multinational with a power capable of absorbing other companies.
The firm removed the word salmon from its name and replaced it with seafood (sea product, in English), being a clear declaration of intent. For four decades, Cooke Seafood has successfully absorbed more than one hundred companies in the fishing sector and is now immersed in a growth plan that wants to take its operations to any corner of the planet. Also to Spain.
The Canadian will take ownership of 80% of Nueva Pescanova after reaching an agreement with Abanca —the entity that saved the Galician company from bankruptcy. The sale will close for 640 million euros and Abanca will maintain 20% of the property with the commitment to continue supporting Pescanova and to ensure that the salmon magnate maintains the activity of a fundamental company for the Galician economy.
The same day that the preliminary sale agreement was made public, Glenn Cooke announced the purchase of one of the largest distributors of fresh and frozen fish in the United States. The recent acquisitions add to a long list that includes the Murcian company Culmarex, with fish farms focused on sea bass and sea bream in the Mediterranean; the Belgian Morubel, a shrimp distributor; and even the trucking provider Connors Transfer, among many others.
The multinational brings together a group of companies that cover the entire value chain, from fishing to processing or distribution. With a turnover of 2,000 million a year, Cooke Seafood has 13,000 employees, operates 700 large ships and has thirty facilities in various countries around the world. The acquisition of Pescanova is one of its most ambitious actions, since the Galician fishing company has 9,200 employees and a turnover of more than 1,000 million, although it carries a debt of more than half a million euros.
With a baseball cap and a smile, Cooke comes to Vigo to fulfill a dream. He himself has confessed that the Spanish group has been a great reference for many years. Some joke that a Canadian is going to become the new captain of Pescanova. Of course, encouraged that one of the best-known and most important companies in the country once again cross the waters of success.
