When buyers become suppliers

摘要

In Europe, some retailers now own their own fishing fleets and processing factories. Is this hyper vertical integration a trend or fad? "Focus on what you do well" is the mantra of many a person, and when it comes to seafood, retailers typically entrust matters of production to existing specialists. However, a few retailers such as Whole Foods in the United States and Intermarche in France have broken that mold, and now the United Kingdom's fourth largest retailer is following their lead. In March, Morrison Supermarkets, with annual sales of 17.7 billion ($28 billion/21 billion), said it had acquired a factory in Grimsby, a UK seafood hub, to process around 10,000 metric tons of seafood.