Icelandic food processing systems provider Marel has announced its acquisition of a 50% stake in Curio, a whitefish processing firm.
Marel, one of the world’s largest producers of food processing machinery, has also negotiated an option for the acquisition of the remaining 50% of shares in Curio in four years. The transaction falls in line with Marel’s strategic goal of becoming a ‘full-line’ supplier, offering standard and modular building blocks for innovative food processing solutions across the meat, poultry and fish sectors. Marel’s acquisition of Curio’s product portfolio – including solutions for the skinning, filleting and heading of fish – complements its existing processing properties and brings the company a step closer to providing full-line services in the field of fish processing.
Árni Oddur Thórdarson, chief executive of Marel, said: “We are super excited to join forces with Curio, an innovative provider of equipment for primary processing for the whitefish segment, bringing us closer to becoming a full-line provider in the global fish segment. In recent years, Marel and Curio have achieved great results collaborating on many full-line projects with some of the most forward-thinking fish processors in the industry. With Marel’s full-line approach, overarching Innova software, and by being a reliable maintenance partner in the field, we help our customers further automate production in a seamless flow, securing more valuable and safer products to global consumers.”
Curio, which has partnered with Marel before, designs and manufactures primary processing solutions for whitefish. It generates annual revenue of around €10m, predominantly through sales in the UK and Scandinavian countries. Curio founder Ellidi Hreinsson, who will remain with the company after the transaction is finalised, said: “The acquisition is excellent news for our customers across the world as the synergies resulting from joining forces will fuel innovation and grow our solution offering. I truly look forward to working closer together and expect great things from our joint innovation efforts.”
