Pickenpack Holding Germany
Pickenpack is one of the largest German and European manufacturers of frozen fish and seafood products. The group of companies is based in Lüneburg , with additional locations in Riepe (fish finger factory) and, for southern and western Europe, in Wimille near Boulogne-sur-Mer. It is mainly produced for private labels by food discounters and other bulk buyers.
Structure to bankruptcy
Under the leading Pickenpack Holding Germany GmbH, the group of companies consisted of the following German companies, all also based in Lüneburg:
- Pickenpack Europe GmbH
- Pickenpack Production Lüneburg GmbH
- TST The Seafood Traders GmbH
- On January 20, 2016, PPV Pickenpack Vertriebs GmbH was entered in the commercial register as the group's sales arm.
In addition, Gelmer SAS in Wimille , France.
history
Beginnings as a fishing company
On September 20, 1906, Julius Pickenpack founded a deep-sea fishing company in Altona , which in 1907, the Esteburg, was the first in the industry to use a steamship.
Reorientation to frozen fish
In the mid-1950s, the family company turned to deep-frozen fish because the German fishing grounds were too small (renamed Pickenpack Tiefkühlgesellschaft in 1956) and took over its sales for several Hamburg fishing companies. In 1975 an own processing plant was established in Lüneburg.
From the family business to changing hands
At the turn of the year 1998/1999, the third-generation managing partner Jan Pickenpack sold his company to a group of investors around the Dutch majority shareholder, the financial investment company Gilde Buy Out Partners, among other things due to pending new tax regulations. In 2003 the company was sold to Hussmann & Hahn and merged to form Pickenpack Hussmann & Hahn Seafood GmbH (PHHS). In 2005 this was taken over by the Icelandic Icelandic Group . In 2008, sales reached around 240 million euros, but then fell. In 2011 Icelandic sold the Pickenpack Group to an investor consortium led by the Chinese fish company Pacific Andes , which took over a 19% stake through Cypriot intermediate companies (the remaining investors are also holding companies based in Cyprus). The Seafood Traders joined the Pickenpack Group in 2013; this company, which was founded only a few years earlier, with its fish finger factory (on the site of a plant of the Heristo subsidiary Crustimex / pro.ffa, which was closed in 2009) in 2012 near Bremen in the Ihlower district of Riepe, previously owned 60% of the Japanese Nissui group heard. In 2013, the Pickenpack Group's turnover fell to around 180 million euros, which was accompanied by various cost-saving measures and restructuring, including major cuts in the workforce.
insolvency
After several years in a row with sharply rising debt, the German companies of the Pickenpack Group filed for insolvency proceedings at the beginning of December 2015, Gelmer SAS was not affected. According to reports in the specialist press, the main reasons were financial problems at the parent company Pacific Andes, which led to the refusal of credit insurance. In addition, there would be production overcapacities in the industry and the extremely low profit margins for mass-produced goods such as fish fingers in the discount sector due to fierce price competition. In 2012, Pickenpack is said to have concluded a non-cost-covering delivery contract with Aldi Purchasing in the hope of falling raw material costs in the future, but currency risks were not hedged, the strong dollar then increased procurement costs; In addition, the wage costs in Germany are relatively high, so that the business model as a whole was not sustainable.
The consulting firm Ernst & Young was commissioned with the search for a buyer. According to information from the trade press, among those interested in buying the TST fish finger factory in Riepe were Greenland Seafood Europe (Bremen / Wilhelmshaven / Paris), which is related to the Asian fish company Pacific Andes , the private equity investment company Orlando Management, which was already part of Pickenpack in 2003, and the US American company Bregal Partners, a division of Bregal Investments of the Brenninkmeijer family , which is already invested in the fishing sector, including in the American Seafoods Group . No prospective buyer was willing to take over the older, not modernized Lüneburg plant. Therefore, the insolvency administrator decided to close it at the end of June 2016, causing around 400 jobs to be lost. A takeover by Greenland Seafood was agreed for Gelmer SAS. The TST in Riepe and the sales company PPV were finally sold to the largest fish company in the USA, Trident Seafoods , which only entered the bidding process after the decision to remove the Lüneburg plant from the sales package and close it. The property in the closed Lüneburg location was acquired by Tofutown , an expanding manufacturer of vegan foods that already has a production facility in the immediate vicinity.
literature
- Shipping company Julius Pickenpack Hochseefischerei Hamburg-Altona: A retrospective 1906 - 1927 - 1952 . Hamburg State Archive , signature A 902 / 0824-07 capsule 01.
- Collection of newspaper clippings Pickenpack, Julius . Hamburg State Archives, signature 731-8 A 902.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.landeszeitung.de/blog/aktuelles/284909-pickenpack-tiet-insolvenz-an
- ↑ http://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/harburg/article107159561/Hier-machen-sie-Fischstaebchen.html
- ^ Hermann-Josef Olbermann: The end of a Hamburg fish dynasty . In: Hamburger Abendblatt, Volume 52, No. 4 of January 6, 1999, p. 17
- ↑ http://gilde.com/investments/exits/pickenpack
- ↑ http://www.wer-zu-wem.de/firma/pickenpack.html
- ↑ http://www.on-online.de/-news/artikel/104119/40-Mio-Euro-in-Riepster-Fischfabrik-investiert
- ↑ http://www.fischmagazin.de/detail-seriennummer-7391-Pickenpack+Europe+GmbH.htm
- ↑ http://www.fischmagazin.de/newsartikel-seriennummer-3318-Lueneburg+Pickenpack+entlaesst+170+Mitarbeiter,+erhaelt+aber+Standort.htm
- ↑ https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2016/03/21/pickenpack-losses-under-pacific-andes-pass-e80m-before-insolvency-filing/
- ↑ http://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/industrie/Discount-Lieferant-Fischverarbeiter-Pickenpack-mendet-Insolvenz-an-120925
- ↑ https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/12/04/pickenpack-french-facility-not-concerned-by-bankruptcy-announcement/
- ↑ https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/11/30/credit-insurers-pull-coverage-on-pacific-andes-pickenpack-over-unpaid-pollock-invoices/
- ↑ https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/12/03/us-pollock-suppliers-to-file-claims-on-unpaid-pickenpack-invoices-next-week/
- ↑ https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/12/01/pacific-andes-fighting-fires-on-three-continents/
- ↑ http://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/handel/Fisch-Neuer-potenter-TK-Anbieter--95911
- ↑ http://www.fischmagazin.de/newsartikel-seriennummer-2551-TST+TiefkuehlProduzent+will+auch+Grossverbrauch+beliefern.htm
- ↑ Who killed Pickenpack? Intrafish.com, December 7, 2015
- ↑ Pickenpack sales targeted by March , tk-report minus 18
- ↑ https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/12/23/pacific-andes-linked-processor-still-eyeing-tst-deal-after-pickenpack-insolvency-filing/
- ↑ Sources: Greenland Seafood aims to buy Pickenpack's TST, Gelmer plants . Undercurrent News, February 2, 2016
- ↑ Former Pickenpack investor in talks for return deal . Undercurrent News, March 31, 2016
- ↑ http://www.tk-18.de/2016/03/neuer-bieter-beim-pickenpack-verkauf/
- ↑ Pickenpack closes Lüneburg location - DIE WELT mobil, April 1, 2016
- ^ Greenland Seafood to buy Gelmer . Undercurrent News, April 5, 2016
- ↑ Trident buying TST plans, Pickenpack sales arm . Undercurrent News, April 12, 2016
- ↑ Tofutown takes over Pickenpack location