John West nets profits hike

JOHN West,the Liverpool-based tinned fish specialist, boosted sales and profits in the year to last March, newly-filed accounts show.

Operating profits rose by a third, from £2.7m to £3.6m as turnover increased by  3.8% from £165.4m to £171.5m.

Bottom line profits showed a much more dramatic uplift, from £1.3m to £35.5m – but relate to changes in the structure of the business by its former owner, French company MW Brands.

Founded in 1861, John West was acquired last October by Thai Union Frozen Products, along with the rest of Paris-based MW Brands for £573.5m.

The sale to the Thai company – which is now the world’s biggest seafood producer – was the latest of several changes of ownership for John West in recent years.

Part of Unilever, until 1997 when it was bought by Heinz,  John West was sold in 2007 to a unit of  failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers.

Although the bulk of its annual sales – £142.9m in 2010 came from the UK,  John West is a brand leader in the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland and supplies 38 countries world wide.

Based on Tithebarn Street, Liverpool, John West employs around 70 people mostly in sales and marketing.

In their report to the accounts, directors said: “Following a reorganisation of the MW Brands Group company structure, the company received a final dividend from its investment in Pioneer Food Cannery (a fellow subsidiary of MW Brands SAS) and disposed of its investment in Pioneer Food Cannery to MW brands SAS which gave rise to dividend income of £16.8m and a profit on disposal of £14.8m.”

Production is carried out at four seafood processing facilities in Ghana, The Seychelles, France and Portugal.

The John West name was founded more than 140 years ago by a Scotsman of the same name. The business was bought by two Liverpool merchants, TL Pelling and CH Stanley, who began importing canned salmon in 1892.