From Producers Sales Organisations to Global Marketing Conglomerates; How the Icelandic Seafood Exporting Companies Changed

• Main Authors: Klemensson, Olafur, Knutsson, Ogmundur
• Format: Report
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade
• Subjects: Fisheries > Economic aspects > Congresses; Sustainable fisheries > Congresses; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/8s45q993f

For decades, three producers-organisations, Icelandic Freezing Plants, Iceland Seafood and Union of Fish Producers (SIF) took care of export and marketing activities of ground fish products from Iceland. These organisations had a virtual monopoly through export licences in exporting frozen and salted seafood product till late 1980´ and early 1990´. The monopoly, granted by the authorities was upheld. In the wake of the widespread deregulation, marketisation of companies (especially in the fishing sector) and privatisation in the 1990´ where changed to be limited liability companies. Through M&A the outcome resulted in two powerful production and marketing companies who where subsequently floated on the Icelandic Stock Market (through IPO) in the late 1990´. The objective of this paper is to analyse, document and describe the changes in these organisations from being non-profit producers-organisations to being publicly listed global corporations competing on the domestic and foreign markets. Analysing these changes it will be the purpose of this paper and to find out what have been the driving forces behind the strategic, structural and organisational changes since 1985: 1) Analysing the business environment and changes therein, using well proven analytical tools like the PESTEL analysis. 2) Horizontal impacts on other seafood suppliers and impacts on competition and sourcing are considered 3) The value adding through product development, global sourcing and marketing 4) Strategic shifting of activities towards the upper end of the value chain 5) Forces of change in global, international, domestic and company specific context. 6) The strategy mix will be analysed. The conclusion includes an assessment of the outcome of the changes and how the two food-processing and marketing companies have performed in recent years. Keywords: Icelandic Fish Industry, Strategy, Globalisation and Organisational Structure, Seafood