COOKE APPOINTS JOHAN BROUWER AS MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MORUBEL AND EXECUTIVE FROZEN SALES LEADER FOR EUROPE September 5, 2023 – Ostend, Belgium – Cooke Inc. is pleased to announce that Johan Brouwer has been appointed as the new Managing Director of Morubel and Executive Frozen Sales Leader for Cooke Europe. Morubel is the leading shrimp processor in Western Europe that cultivates, processes, packs and distributes shrimp and other seafood products. Morubel distributes its market-leading organic and frozen products to retail, foodservice and food industry customers across Europe. Based in the Netherlands, Mr. Brouwer is a 25-year veteran in seafood and brings significant experience in foodservice, retail sales and account management. He is joining Cooke from Veramaris, where he was the director of business development. He previously held roles at Seafood Connection (Maruha Nichiro Group) and Marine Harvest (Mowi) and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Global Shrimp Forum. Mr. Brouwer will report to the COO for Cooke Europe and will be responsible for overseeing all business operations and sales and marketing. The Cooke family of companies has diversified operations in Europe including Bioriginal Europe/Asia B.V. in The Netherlands, Cooke Aquaculture Scotland, Cooke Aquaculture Spain / Grupo Culmarex, Northeast Nutrition Scotland, and Morubel. Cooke’s core purpose is ‘To cultivate the ocean with care, nourish the world, provide for our families, and build stronger communities’. Contact Joel Richardson Vice President, Public Relations Cooke Inc. / for Morubel 40 Wellington Row, Saint John, N.B. E2L 3H3 M: +1-506-721-1093 / T: +1-506-694-4938 joel.richardson@cookeaqua.com www.morubel.be / www.cookeseafood.com
MORUBEL ACQUISITION BY COOKE August 9, 2022 – Cooke Inc. (“Cooke”), has acquired Morubel N.V. (“Morubel”), the leading shrimp processor in Western Europe that cultivates, processes, packs and distributes shrimp and other seafood products. Morubel distributes its market-leading organic and frozen products to retail, foodservice and food industry customers across Europe in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, and France. Morubel’s wild catch product range includes Argentina red shrimp, tropical prawns and shrimp, Vannamei prawns, crayfish, and squid. The company supplies farmed aquaculture including Black Tiger prawns, northern prawns, mussels and scallops. Morubel delivers products with full traceability of its global supply chain as well as multiple sustainability and food safety certifications. Founded in 1954, Morubel was acquired in 2014 by Bencis Capital Partners, an independent investment company with offices in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Düsseldorf. Morubel’s 14,000 square meter plant in Ostend, Belgium has a production capacity of 18,000 metric tonnes for frozen seafood, retail, and bulk packaging with opportunity for increased growth. Ostende is the largest city on the Belgian coast, famous for its delicious seaside cuisine. “Morubel’s focus on developing sustainable, new added value products and continuously focusing on innovation was an attractive complement to our European seafood offerings,” says Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc. “We’re very excited to welcome Morubel’s 100 employees to Cooke. The plant staff, sales and management are exceptional, and they have formed longstanding customer relationships by being a flexible and reliable supplier with consistently high quality and short delivery times.” The Cooke family of companies has diversified operations in Europe including Cooke Aquaculture Scotland, Northeast Nutrition Scotland, Cooke Aquaculture Spain / Grupo Culmarex, and Bioriginal Europe/Asia B.V. in The Netherlands. Globally, Cooke harvests and sells 30% wild seafood and 70% farmed seafood and has in-market European sales representatives. “Team Cooke had a strong presence this spring in Barcelona at Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global, the world’s largest seafood trade fair. The Morubel team welcomes the sale to Cooke – we’ve found an ideal alignment to enable our future growth,” says Dirk De Pandelaere, CEO of Morubel. “We see a lot of opportunities to expand our product line to sell additional Cooke products in European countries where Cooke is building its presence.”
Finalist Excellence Global Seafood We zijn heel trots aan te kondigen dat we met onze beide Tasty Bag producten genomineerd zijn als finalist in de Seafood Excellence Global awards competition voor komende Seafood Expo Global beurs dat in Brussel doorgaat van 07 tot 09 mei.
This was SEG 2017 Zoals elk jaar was Morubel weer present op Seafood Expo Global in Brussel die plaatsvond van 25 tot en met 27 april. Dit was het eerste jaar dat we deelnamen als Shore nv, en aanwezig waren met onze zusterbedrijven Ristic GmbH, Rainbow Export Processing S.A. en Telson BV. De focus lag op ons "chilled" assortiment, onze eigen biologische witpootgarnalen en onze machine gepelde Noordzee garnalen. We kregen positieve feedback uit verschillende markten, hadden een prachtige stand EN we waren finalist in de Seafood Excellence Global awards met onze verse clean label Noordzee garnalen. Over een succesvolle editie gesproken!
Joint venture Morubel/Ristic en het Nederlandse Telson 26 april 2016 GBC, eigenaar van het Belgische Morubel nv en het Duitse Ristic GmbH wordt medeaandeelhouder van het Nederlandse Telson B.V. GBC zal 50 % van de belangen in Telson B.V. nemen waardoor de bedrijvengroep die met Morubel en Ristic al een sterke positie in diepgevroren tropische garnalen had, nu ook toegang krijgt tot het koelvers segment. Vanuit deze combinatie wordt een nóg breder assortiment garnalen aangeboden. Telson is voornamelijk actief op het gebied van ongepelde en gepelde Noordzee garnalen (Crangon crangon), beter bekend als Hollandse garnalen of grijze garnalen. Telson heeft bovendien een unieke positie in machine gepelde Noordzee garnalen. Hiervoor werkt het bedrijf exclusief samen met GPC Kant, die de machines ontworpen en ontwikkeld heeft. Telson, nu nog gevestigd in Leens, zal samen met het bedrijf van de familie Kant binnenkort haar intrek nemen in een nieuw pand in Lauwersoog, Nederland. Na 25 jaar intensieve ontwikkeling waardoor de machines steeds efficiënter werden, zijn de machines nu dusdanig verfijnd dat men in de nabije toekomst tot 100.000kg ongepelde garnalen per week machinaal zal kunnen pellen in de spiksplinternieuwe productieruimte. Een verdere capaciteitsuitbreiding binnen enkele jaren moet niet worden uitgesloten. Dit wordt een belangrijke doorbraak op het gebied van machine gepelde Noordzee garnalen waardoor een retourtje Marokko voor een sterk toenemend volume niet langer nodig zal zijn. Hiermee zet de garnalengroep wederom een belangrijke stap op het gebied van duurzaamheid. PURE BUSINESS in al zijn facetten. De directie van de joint venture zal bestaan uit Rob Pikkert, de huidige Directeur van Telson B.V. en Edo Abels, MD van Morubel nv en Ristic GmbH. Met daar bovenop de inbreng van de zeer lange ervaring van de familie Nienhuis kan men gerust spreken van een sterke bundeling van krachten.
Morubel nv joins forces with German Ristic AG March 3rd, 2016 GBC, owner of Morubel nv, and Peter Ristic, owner of Ristic AG, based in Germany announced today that they have reached an agreement for the acquisition of all outstanding shares of Ristic and the Costa Rican entities by GBC. After completion of the transaction and approval of the relevant authorities, Morubel and Ristic will join forces and become the leading party in the European frozen shrimp market with a unique sustainability proposition. The activities of both companies are highly complementary: Ristic has a solid position in farmed shrimp, with own production facilities in Costa Rica and Morubel is leading in the segment of wild-caught shrimp. But there is also a perfect match in their business approach: for both companies sustainability forms an integral part of business policies. The combination of Morubel and Ristic activities will therefore give customers and consumers better access to a broader variety of sustainable and responsible products. Since both companies offer their products mainly under private label, practical implications for customers are rather limited. Moreover the different company brand names will be maintained. Ristic employs approximately 275 people in Oberferrieden in Germany and the companies in Costa Rica. Morubel in Oostende, Belgium employs 107 people. The new combination will be led by Edo Abels, the current CEO of Morubel. Ristic founder and majority shareholder Peter Ristic will stay on as Managing Director of Ristic AG. Closing of the transaction is still subject to approval of the relevant authorities and may be expected in the second half of March 2016
Een nieuwe garnaal in onze product portfolio! Nieuw in ons productgamma is de Argentijnse rode garnaal: Pleoticus muelleri. Deze mooie roodgekleurde koudwater garnaal wordt gevangen langs de kusten van Argentinië. Ze heeft een stevige structuur en een zoete smaak. Beschikbaar als hele garnaal (gamba), garnaalstaart, easy peel of gepelde pud of pd. Zie productblad voor meer informatie, of contacteer onze verkoop: sales@morubel.be. Beschikbaar voor private label, Morubel retail merk of ons Elite foodservice merk.
Morubel Statement on the Guardian’s article on slave labour producing shrimp in Thailand. June 12th 2014 In view of the recent press information on labour abuse by the company CP Thailand and in response to any questions our customers have concerning the origin of their products supplied by Morubel, we can confirm that no products from Morubel originate from CP Thailand neither did we buy any shrimp or prawns in Thailand at all during the last 14 months. Morubel is a member of BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative) and we are committed to have social audits with our suppliers in risk countries. Social compliance is an improvement process and compliance cannot be guaranteed in one go, but through social auditing corrective action plans can accurately be addressed and controlled, and further steps in the supply chain can be taken.