Gemini Sea Food plans to expand business into local market

After consolidating its foothold in the international frozen food industry, Gemini Sea Food now plans to expand its business into the local market by raising funds from stock investors. 

The frozen food maker has disclosed its plan in a recent regulatory filing.

To meet the growing demand for shrimp in the global market, it also wants to use its maximum production capacity of Tk200 crore annually. In the Covid-19 pandemic, the shrimp business had suffered severe disruptions.

In seven months through January, the shrimp export jumped by 40.24% to $294.94 million, while it was $328.84 million in the entire 2020-21 fiscal year.

The company also plans to raise its paid-up capital to more than Tk30 crore, from the existing Tk4.70 crore, to comply with the regulatory requirement.

To do so, the company wants to issue bonus shares and right shares by fiscal 2025-26, and it will add a new line of frozen food.

It wants to produce chicken nuggets, sausage, meatballs, fish-balls, shrimp-balls, fish finger, paratha, French fries, cutlets, and other edibles to penetrate the local market.

The company informed the Bangladesh Securities Exchange Commission (BSEC), a specific group of consumers presently started to consume such types of foods and has become habituated in the post-pandemic period. 

There is a market of takeaway lunches of Tk2,670 crore at a minimum Tk100 per-unit level. Even a negligible 5% market share would yield a turnover of Tk137 crore annually, the firm added.

It further said the average annual growth rate of the two years is around 25%. The company has already hired skilled people for the new segment of the frozen food industry.

This correspondent called the company secretary AFM Nazrul Islam but he did not pick up the phone.

Gemini Sea Foods has been the pioneer in exporting certified organic shrimp from Bangladesh to EU retailers since 2008. It processes, packages, and exports quality frozen raw shrimp, cooked shrimp, and whitefish.

It exports its products to the US and the EU countries, such as the UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Russia.

In the final three months of 2021, the company made a revenue of Tk28.34 crore, which was 319% higher than a year earlier.

Its net profit stood at Tk1.65 crore, compared to a net loss of Tk1.52 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Its earnings per share rose to Tk3.51, from a loss of Tk3.24 a year ago, bolstered by an increase in export revenue and the low raw material costs, said the company.

The firm got listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange in 1985.

Currently, the frozen food market, a growing sector in Bangladesh, is spreading rapidly amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Many well-established firms, as well as young entrepreneurs, are focusing on this sector through investment along with bigger competitors.

In addition to Gemini Sea Food, Golden Harvest, Apex Foods, Pran, AG Foods, Frozen Foods, Kazi Farms, McCain Foods, Royal Frozen, Savar Dairy, Nekkanti Sea Foods, Eurasia Food are also playing a major role in this sector.