The president of heavily indebted Chinese fishing firm Shanghai Kaichuang Marine International Co., Ltd has issued a stark warning to his managers to get the company’s costs under control in order to turn the company around.
One of the highest-geared firms in China’s seafood sector, Kaichuang, which specializes in mackerel, tuna, fish fillets and krill, posted a loss of CNY 4 million (USD 580,500, EUR 519,500) in the first financial quarter of 2017 and is carrying debt of CNY 90.7 million (USD 13.2 million, EUR 11.8 million), double the figure for 2015, on revenue of CNY 169.3 million (USD 24.6 million, EUR 22 million).
Speaking at the company’s headquarters in Shanghai at a meeting on the firm’s first-quarter performance, company president Xie Fengji said the firm was succeeding in reducing losses, but warned managers to “stay within budget…don’t just look at the numbers, analyze the factors behind them.”
State-owned Kaichuang drew headlines for its acquisition of the company behind the popular ‘ALBO’ canned seafood brand in Spain, but the firm has suffered from poor returns and paid no dividends to investors for 2016. However, the firm received has received an undisclosed handout from government in the form of fuel subsidies.
Kaichuang appears to be going all out to raise production. the firm’s average yields from its seine-net tuna vessels in the first quarter of 2017 have exceeded those of comparable vessels in Taiwan, according to Xie. This, he said, is a milestone and a first for a fishing company in mainland China.
