Icewater Seafoods purchase of Marel FleXicut the final piece of $10M cod plant investment

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Today at the Brussels Expo, Canadian seafood company Icewater Seafoods penned an agreement with Marel to purchase the $1.6M FleXicut for its 70,000 square foot, world class cod plant.

The investment is the final piece of a $10M multi-year investment in the Icewater Seafoods facility. Since 2018, the company has added leading edge heading, filleting and skinning machines, as well as a state-of-the-art Ice Management System.

“Icewater is the only processor in North America dedicated full-time to Atlantic cod production and we’re committed to being among the best in the world,” explained President and CEO, Alberto Wareham. “Icewater already has an unwavering commitment to quality, and this final piece of our $10M investment will ensure we remain competitive on cod with the best of Iceland and Norway.”

The FleXicut automatic pinboning and portioning machine uses X-ray vision to locate the pinbones and cuts using water-jets and knives to remove bones and portion fillets. The automation of bone removal with the revolutionary machine raises productivity and greatly improves product handling and yield.

The FleXicut system at Icewater will also include intelligent product distribution. FleXisort automatically allocates each of the various outputs to different product streams, thereby saving time and further increasing efficiency.

“Icewater Seafoods and the Wareham family have a long history of taking advantage of the latest processing technology with Marel,” says Kristmann Kristmannsson, Area Sales Manager at Marel. “Close cooperation with key players in the processing technology sector has enabled the Warehams to adapt to changes, meet industry challenges and keep their operation competitive.”

The partnership with Marel was a natural fit for Icewater Seafoods. They were the first Canadian company to invest in Marel waterproof scales when Icewater’s founder, the late Bruce Wareham (Alberto’s father), was impressed by the quality of the Marel equipment in the 1980s.

“At Icewater, we’re in the high-quality cod business and we’re in it for the long-term. That means investing in the right equipment. We have a long-standing relationship with Marel and they are experts in their field. The equipment lasts decades with incredible performance records,” Wareham explains.

The FleXicut system will be tested and installed at Icewater Seafoods during the 2019 season.

Media contacts

Icewater Seafoods: Sarah Fleming, m: 709-725-5830, e: sarah@covepublicaffairs.ca
Marel: Stella Björg Kristinsdóttir, m: +354 825 8205, e: Stella.Kristinsdottir@marel.com

*Currency referenced throughout is Canadian Dollars (CAD).


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