TASSAL GROUP

3 Hobart-based salmon farmer Tassal was founded in 1986 after government trials had established the viability of an Atlantic salmon industry in Tasmanian waters. It has grown steadily through merger, acquisition and restructuring, taking over some of the 11 companies that began salmon farming in the mid 1980s, and it now dominates the local industry with a high market share and wide distribution of its products. It opened a restaurant and a salmon retail store in Hobart. In 2015 it acquired the prominent seafood products processor and distributor De Costi Seafoods.

Seafood is a $4.3 billion industry in Australia, and with the De Costi acquisition Tassal is now the market leader. Consumers in Australia are increasingly coming to recognise the health benefits of salmon and other seafood, and demand is steadily rising, although domestic per capita consumption remains lower than in some other Western countries. Consequently, a key growth strategy for Tassal is to promote higher levels of fish consumption in Australia. It sees De Costi as playing an important role in this work. With salmon prices now high, the company expects further profit growth in the June 2018 year, after a solid increase in June 2017. It has resumed exports, to take advantage of high global prices. It believes the bigger fish it is now producing will generate premium prices in some export markets, and it plans to open a sales office in China.