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High Liner Foods Incorporated (HLF) |
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CEOCFO Current
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High Liner Foods provides products of
great quality, taste and convenience for a healthy lifestyle, available at local
supermarkets, Club Stores, and in food service channels High Liner Foods Incorporated (HLF -
Toronto) is a processor and marketer of superior quality seafood and frozen pasta
products. They market their products under the High Liner®, Fisher Boy®, Gina Italian
Village® and Floresta® brands to most major retail chain stores, restaurants and
institutions for food service throughout North America. High Liner Foods' vision is to
achieve above average returns for shareholders, relative to comparable food companies, by
being a leader in its target markets through superior customer satisfaction. They pursue
their vision while adhering to four underlying values: quality, integrity, involvement,
and innovation. Throughout all aspects of operations - from ocean harvesting to new
product development - High Liner Foods ensures the highest quality of products and
customer service. The company’s strategy is to develop brands that deliver taste and
convenience to consumers and contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Mr. Henry E. Demone, president and CEO of High Liner Foods
Incorporated tells us, “High Liner Foods has been through a
ten-year transition from a resource based fishing company to a frozen food processor. We
still sell more than eighty percent seafood but increasingly we sell value-added seafood
products. The difference is that now we are a consumer and customer-focused company. We
spend a lot of time trying to figure out what customers and consumers want and need. We
then develop products that meet those needs and purchase the raw materials necessary to
manufacture them. This is a different mindset and process from a fishing company, which is
much more resource based and focused on catching fish and selling it to the best available
market. We have also entered the second category, which is Italian food and our Italian
Village brand is the number-two brand of frozen Italian-style pasta products like ravioli
and tortellini in the U.S market. It is the leading brand of Italian-style stuffed pasta
in the Canadian market as well.” Describing High Liner’s expansion
into the Club channel, Mr. Demone states. “We have a sub-category up in Canada of natural portions of products
like salmon, sole, cod and haddock, which are lightly coated and flavored. We call that
the High Liner Signature line and it has done extremely well in Canada over the last three
or four years. We took the best products from that line such as salmon in creamy dill
sauce, salmon in roasted garlic and herbs or scallops in a lime salsa marinade and
introduced them to the Club Channel. Products like that are very much restaurant quality
in nature but very simple to prepare for the consumer. We like to talk about one-step
cooking where you set your oven or microwave with a time and a temperature and when the
beeper or buzzer goes off, the products are finished. They are not only easy to cook but
are very delicious. We took those products and adopted them to the Club Channel and have
been selling aggressively to both Costco and Sam’s Club for the last two years. In
2002, our sales were thirty-three million Canadian dollars. That is from a standing start
two years ago, so we have had a lot of success there and these products really respond to
what consumers are looking for today. They want to eat more seafood but they do not want
to take the time or risk involved with preparation. We give them a great tasting product
without the worries.” As to the growth, Mr.
Demone explains, “We feel very optimistic in terms of
our growth opportunities. The two categories we are in really respond to consumers looking
for healthy lifestyles. Yet they are also products that consumers are not likely to
prepare at home from scratch. There are consumers that do prepare Italian food and seafood
from scratch but the vast majority of North Americans, when they enjoy these two
categories, would choose to eat in a restaurant. We provide great quality and taste as
well as convenience in two categories that respond to a healthy lifestyle. We see many
growth opportunities just through the supermarket channel. There are other channels such
as the food service channel in Canada and the Club Channel. There are some new initiatives
that we have such as school food service that is a growth initiative where we are going to
take some of our kid-focused products such as fish sticks and ravioli, which of course
appeal to kids, and sell them to school districts across the U.S. We have not seen much
impact on that yet but it is one of our growth initiatives for 2003 and 2004.”
In Canada, High Liner Foods Incorporated, based in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia focuses on
serving the Canadian retail and food service markets as well as the North American fresh
fish markets. It is home of the High Liner® brand. They are the only Canadian
manufacturer competing in all five major segments of the frozen fish market: raw fillets,
battered fish, breaded fish, fish and chips and prepared fillets. They also market frozen
entrees. In the United States, High Liner Foods Incorporated is headquartered in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire and oversees all frozen seafood production and distribution for
the retail markets in the U.S. and Mexico. In the U.S. retail frozen seafood market, High
Liner Foods is a leading producer and marketer of fish sticks through its Fisher Boy |
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