Friday, 26 September 2025
Sealord made a further announcement to staff today that it is proposing to make its wetfish and by-products factories and fresh fish trawler seasonal instead of year-round.
This follows a review of the deep-sea fishing company’s business model, which identified the need for changes in its retail branded frozen fish business including its coated factory and its export commodity business based out of Nelson. This would ensure ongoing viability for those parts of Sealord’s business.
Under this proposal, the wetfish and by-products factories and fishing vessel, the Thomas Harrison, would operate from May to September, during the busy hoki season.
Sealord is consulting impacted staff about the proposal, which would see 59 roles disestablished if the proposal goes ahead.
Sealord CEO Doug Paulin said it is a difficult process for impacted staff, and the company will do what it can to support them.
“We would prioritise roles for our hard-working wetfish and coated factory staff during hoki season should these proposals go ahead, and they wish to come back.”
He said the company was potentially facing a full shut down its fresh fish trawler and all land-based operations at its Nelson site.
“Instead of closing our Nelson site completely, which would impact significantly more permanent employees and be a major economic hit for the region, this seasonal proposal would mean that we’re able to retain the majority of our Nelson-based operations and the jobs associated with them. This also includes our cold store and dry store, and office-based support roles.
“In total we would retain 81 permanent jobs and 400 seasonal roles, and save over 90% of the economic benefits to the region.”
Doug said the proposed change is in no way a reflection on the people.
“It is driven by the need to adapt to the challenging economic environment with escalating operating costs, deflated global commodity pricing for frozen fish, decreasing volume and ever-increasing regulatory compliance costs over the last 10 years.”
He explains further: “The export commodity products produced in our wetfish factory in Nelson are loss making in every month except for in hoki season. This loss has been exacerbated in recent times with price drops at the same time as costs have risen sharply and the volume of fish available to be harvested and processed outside of hoki season has fallen.
“The reality is that for Sealord Group to be economically sustainable long term, we must reduce our costs and decrease complexity to focus on our core business of fishing. Customer demand for wild harvest, sustainably caught New Zealand fish remains strong but the environment we operate in is increasingly complex and uncertain. This proposal to transition to a seasonal operation reduces our operating costs, increases returns from these commodity export products to a viable level and allows us to invest in what we do best, which is catching and processing fish during the hoki season.
“Our people have worked incredibly hard to lift the performances of our Nelson based operations. Unfortunately, the cost of doing business in New Zealand has increased substantially and without change would threaten the viability of the Group which currently employs around 1,750 people.”
Meantime, consultation closed today for impacted staff on a proposal to close Sealord’s coated fish factory, with a decision expected to be made on 3 October. A decision about changing Nelson-based operations to seasonal is expected to be made in mid-October.