Talley's says the acquisition will help it meet the strong national and international demand for greenshell mussels. Photo: 123RF
Food and beverage company Kono NZ is selling its Marlborough-based seafood business to food manufacturing giant Talley's.
Kono Seafood, a Wakatū Incorporation business, produces and exports greenshell mussels and employs around 300 staff across three sites in Blenheim, Golden Bay and Havelock.
Kono NZ chief operating officer Andy Wotton said it was working with Talley's to ensure employees were offered roles - with the company expected to take on the majority of Kono's staff.
Established in 2011, Kono NZ exports food and beverages around the world. Its formation consolidated all the food and beverage businesses of Wakatū Incorporation into one entity.
Wotton said the sale of its seafood assets formed part of a wider strategic reset for Wakatū - to ensure its business portfolio aligned with its 500-year vision Te Pae Tawhiti, which included ensuring the retention of culturally significant land, sustainably producing high-value products while being the best indigenous food and beverage business in the world.
"Our core purpose is inter-generational - to protect and enhance our taonga, for the benefit of current and future generations.
"As part of that goal, the different parts of our business will change and evolve over time, but our purpose remains the same. To care for and ensure the protection of our whenua through the generations, and to develop the capability of our whānau - from both a cultural and commercial perspective."
Wotton said the sale of Kono Seafood would not impact its other businesses - Kono Horticulture, Hop Federation and Tohu wines.
Talley's chief executive Tony Hazlett said it had been looking at how to meet the strong national and international demand for greenshell mussels.
"With capacity at our mussel facilities we are thrilled this deal with Kono will enable us to employ hundreds of skilled local people, keeping them in our region."
Its Blenheim-based mussel plant, which was extended in 2021, can have up to 450 staff working on four product lines.
Hazlett said more than 250 roles had been created for Kono seafood staff and there would be opportunities for staff to work in Havelock, Motueka and Golden Bay, and potentially in Talley's other food businesses.
Talley's produces a range of seafood, vegetable and ice cream products that are sold around the world. The company has been based in the top of the South Island since 1936 and its mussel business began in the 1960s in Motueka.