Thai Union Group

Thai Union Group PLC.

Type	Public Limited Company
Traded as	SET: TU
Industry	Food
Founded	Thailand (March 17, 1977 (1977-03-17))
Headquarters	72/1 Moo 7, Sethakit 1 Rd, Tambon Tarsrai, Amphoe Mueang Samut Sakhon, Samut Sakhon 74000^[1], Thailand
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Thiraphong Chansiri (President and CEO) Kraisorn Chansiri (Chairman) Cheng Niruttinanon (Executive Chairman)
Products	Seafood (Frozen, Canned, Chilled)
Revenue	125 billion baht^[2]
Net income	6.1 billion baht^[3]
Total assets	115.4 billion baht^[4]
Total equity	47.5 billion baht^[5]
Number of employees	46,500 (2015)
Website	www.thaiunion.com

Thai Union Group is a Thailand-based producer of seafood-based food products. It was founded in 1977,^[6] and was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) on 22 November 1994.^[7]

Thai Union operates worldwide with plant facilities in France, Ghana, Poland, Portugal, Papua New Guinea, the Seychelles, Scotland, Vietnam, Thailand and the United States. Its business includes tuna, shrimp, sardines/mackerel, salmon, pet food, and value-added products (prepared foods).^[8]

Brand portfolio

Thai Union's brand portfolio includes:

Bellotta (sold in Thailand)
Chicken of the Sea (sold in USA)
Fisho (sold in Thailand)
John West (sold in the Netherlands and UK)
King Oscar (sold in Norway)
Mareblu (sold in Italy)
Marvo (sold in Thailand)
Parmentier (sold in France)
fr:Petit Navire (sold in France)
de:Rügen Fisch (sold in Germany)
Sealect (sold in Thailand)

Financial Performance

Thai Union's target is to achieve US$8 billion in revenue by 2020. The revenue contribution of its different businesses as of 2015 are:^[9]

Tuna business 37%
Shrimp business 29%
Sardines/mackerel 6%
Salmon 9%
Pet food 7%
Value-added products (prepared foods) 12%

History

1977: Established on 17 March 1977 as Asian Pacific Thai Tuna Co, Ltd. with initial capital of 25 million baht.^[10]
1988: Renamed Thai Union Frozen Products PLC in March 1988.^[11]
2010: Acquired MW Brands (now Thai Union Europe) from Trilantic Capital Partners for EUR680 million.^[12]
2010: Expanded and diversified into the pet food business with U.S. Pet Nutrition LLC.^[13]
2013: Became the first Thai company to join the UN Global Compact, an initiative aimed at "promoting sustainable and socially responsible policies."^[14]
2013: Became a founding member of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF).
2014: Signed a deal for MW Brands to take over 40-year-old French company MerAlliance, the fourth largest smoked salmon producer in Europe. Terms of the deal were not disclosed and were expected to significantly enlarge the group's chilled seafood business. MerAlliance's revenue for the year to 31 March 2014 was US$220 million.
2014 & 2015: Included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), and was "the only Thai company featured" and the first to "join the food category" of the index.^[15]^[16]
2015: Rebranded to Thai Union Group PLC (TU).^[17] This rebranding was part of an initiative to "integrate all its [Thai Union] subsidiaries under a single new corporate vision, mission and core values, as well as one unified corporate brand."^[18]
2016: Launched SeaChange, the company's sustainability strategy.^[19]

Acquisitions

1997: Completes first overseas investment with the acquisition of Chicken of the Sea, USA's third canned tuna brand.
2003: Acquired Empress International Ltd,^[20] a frozen seafood importer and distributor in the USA.
2006: Established Chicken of the Sea^[21] Frozen Foods to market frozen seafood in the USA. Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods later merged with Empress International and was renamed Tri-Union Frozen Products, Inc.
2006: Acquired majority stake in PT Jui Fa International Food, a canned tuna producer and exporter based in Indonesia.
2008: Acquired majority stake in Yueh Chyang Canned Food, a canned seafood producer and exporter based in Vietnam.
2009: Invested in Avanti Feeds Limited, a shrimp feed and frozen shrimp producer based in India.
2010: Founded US Pet Nutrition LLC^[22] to produce and market pet care in the USA.
2014: Further expansion into Europe with the acquisition of MerAlliance SAS, Europe's fourth smoked salmon producer and number one producer in France.
2014: Acquired King Oscar AS of Norway, the premium shelf-stable sardine brand in Norway, USA and Australia and with over 140 years of heritage.
2016: Acquired German seafood company de:Rügen Fisch AG.^[23]

Issues

Labor

Greenpeace accusations

Thai Union Group has been accused by Greenpeace of being "seriously implicated in horrendous human rights and environmental abuses" and warned shareholders and investors "of the financial risks associated with these destructive and harmful practices."^[24] The company faces a number of other legal challenges.^[25]

Thai Union released a statement in response to the accusations made by Greenpeace in 2015. It reiterated its commitment to human rights and the company's vision of "an industry that respects the oceans and protects marine life, offers safe employment for millions of people around the world, supports the development of coastal communities and continues to provide a safe, affordable and healthy food source for a global population well into the future."^[26] Thai Union also noted that it works closely with the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) to "benefit the wider tuna fishing industry" and concluded by calling on Greenpeace to join the "industry debate that is already underway, to work towards achieving our shared objectives."^[27]

Slave Labor & Human Rights

Thai Union was named, but was not a defendant, in a lawsuit brought against Nestle Corporation for violating California laws.^[28] Thai Union has been under scrutiny since the July 2015 publication of a New York Times article citing a former slave fisherman stating he had been held captive on a vessel supplying a mother ship that ended up selling to Thai Union's Songkla canning operation.^[29]

In a response to the New York Times, Thai Union re-asserted its commitment to the protection of human rights. A spokesperson stated the company worked to prevent "any human trafficking or any human rights violation of any kind"^[30] highlighting procedures that are in place, such as routine audits of its canneries and boats in port to ensure against forced and child labor.^[31]

In 2015, Thai Union released new codes of conduct, replacing the company's 2013 code of conduct.^[32] The "more stringent" new code of conduct allows for higher levels of "accountability and transparency" and showcased Thai Union's commitment to "earn the trust of customers, consumers and the world by operating with integrity and high ethical standards".^[33] The company also claims to have terminated relationships with 17 suppliers as a result of forced labor or human trafficking violations since the start of 2015, and have ended the use of employment brokers to source for workers for its seafood processing plants to stop workers being indebted to brokers (bonded labor).^[34]^[35]

Slave Labor in the Shrimp Industry

Thailand's seafood industry, and by implication, Thai Union, was the subject of a year-long study of the Thai shrimp industry commissioned by Nestlé. The report, conducted by Verité on behalf of Geneva-based Nestlé, was released on 23 November 2015. It found "indicators of forced labor, trafficking, and child labor to be present among sea-based and land-based workers."^[36]

In a statement issued on 10 December 2015, Thai Union declared that it will cease working with all shrimp processing subcontractors by the end of 2015. The company said that it would bring all shrimp processing operations in-house to enable full oversight. All processing work will be directly controlled by Thai Union to ensure that all workers, whether migrants or Thai, have safe, legal employment and are treated fairly and with dignity. Thai Union estimates that subcontractors employ about 1,000 migrant workers.^[37] Andy Hall, a British human rights defender and a migrant worker specialist based in Thailand, said that "Thai Union ... must be commended for belatedly moving seafood primary processing in house."^[38]

The working conditions have shown to be improved for the workers that Thai Union brought in-house to its shrimp processing operations; with a clean working environment, subsidized meals, increased salaries, and opportunities for bonuses, time off work, and workers’ rights.^[39]

Environment

Sourcing

In October 2015 Greenpeace accused Thai Union subsidiary John West (UK) of making a "plainly false" claim that customers can trace its tuna back to the vessel that caught it. John West's website includes a tool that allows customers to enter the can code to "see exactly where your fish came from".^[40] The tool does not identify sources of Thai tuna and instead invites customers to email John West. John West said that the problem is a website limitation, and all its tuna is fully traceable.^[41]

Greenpeace has also ranked John West last in sustainability surveys because 98% of its tuna was caught using "fish aggregation devices"^[42] that kill other marine wildlife.

Thai Union has committed to the following by 2020:^[43]

Full traceability for all seafood we purchase, dramatically reducing the risk of IUU fishing in the global fishing industry.

Specific to its tuna business, Thai Union has committed to the following by 2020:^[44]

Digital traceability: We will work with innovative technology providers to develop a system for digital traceability.
Tuna sourcing policies: We will have aligned every one of our tuna sourcing policies everywhere in the world. We will publish these policies in line with our commitment to transparency.
Academic and scientific research: We will work with academic bodies, universities and scientific institutions to support research into fishery improvements.
Innovation: We have developed the Global Innovation Incubator in Thailand to look at all aspects of innovation and research into tuna from species to processing to packaging.
Post-harvest risk assessment: We will work with fishery experts to address the issues around tuna grading, utilization of non-target species and low-economic-value species, and care-of-catch to ensure high standards are met from harvest to plate.

Thai Union Europe is working with WWF-UK and WWF France between 2014 and 2018 improve sustainability of seafood species, and working towards Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification across the Thai Union Europe supply chain.^[45]

Others

Bumble Bee Foods

In December 2014 Thai Union announced it would spend US$1.5 billion to acquire Bumble Bee Foods. That deal was put in jeopardy after the US Department of Justice announced it began an anti-trust investigation into the company over-pricing and competitive practices. Thai Union abandoned its purchase plans in early-December 2015 after US officials objected on the grounds that it would reduce competition. "'Consumers are better off without this deal," Bill Baer, assistant attorney general of the US Department of Justice's anti-trust division, said....'Our investigation convinced us—and the parties knew or should have known from the get go— that the market is not functioning competitively today, and further consolidation would only make things worse.'"^[46]

External links

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.