Fisherman’s Market sold to Mersey
Majority owner had been looking for ‘right fit for some time'
Fred Greene was still a very young man in 1960 when he joined his uncle's small seafood company, which at the time consisted of two half-ton trucks and six employees.
“I remember the first year's total sales were $175,000 and we made $15,000, which was a lot of money in those days,” Greene said on Tuesday.
“I came in that year and was able to help a lot.”
Today, that company, Fisherman's Market, is an international seafood company with more than 150 employees and retail locations throughout the province.
Greene has sold his majority share in the company to Mersey Seafoods of Liverpool. Mersey will own 75 per cent of the company and Greene's partner, Monte Snow, 25 per cent. Neither side divulged the terms of the deal, but it was for more than $15,000.
When he joined the company, Greene had already worked in farming and in the military, but it was the accounting skills he had developed as a construction office manager that made him most valuable to his uncle.
“I was able to, the first year or so, really cut down on some stuff that was going missing and track stuff,” he said.
At the end of three months, his uncle was happy enough with his work to offer him a full-time job and to make shares in the business part of his compensation each year. It was a hard go for a while. “The county tax man would come in and he'd say, ‘How much are you going to give us this year, Greene? Are you going to give us a thousand dollars?' I said, ‘No, I'm only going to give you $500 and I know you'll accept that, so go away. I need the money.'”
COVID-19 shrunk the workforce at Fisherman's Market from a high of 200, though Greene described the last year as tough but good. He said the pandemic has nothing to do with him selling.
“I've been trying to find somebody the right fit for some time,” the 81-year-old said.
“I finally found somebody, Mersey, who I feel are very capable people. I've known the outfit since the very beginning, and that goes back a long ways. They felt there were synergies between us.”
The two companies, which have done business for 60 years, had only two negotiation sessions before the onset of the pandemic, which stopped talks for months.
“When we finally got going again, Mersey came up with the idea they wanted it done by Dec. 31, if possible, which put a real strain on everybody, but I have to say that it worked out and ... people worked way late into the holidays to get it done,” said Greene, who will stay on as a consultant and adviser for three years.
Mersey Seafoods was founded by the late Dr. Bill Murphy, and his family retains ownership. The company has four large vessels, three of which have frozen-at-sea capability, harvesting mainly shrimp, scallops and groundfish.
“This deal won't change our business much, other than presenting the opportunity to fish from some of the Fisherman's Market quotas and for some of our products to go through their distribution channels,” said Greg Simpson, company president.
“For Mersey, we had built a building and made another acquisition in the last couple of years, and with shrimp quotas declining, it made sense to continue to diversify in the Nova Scotia fishery.”
Fisherman's Market will continue to operate under the same name.