Sojitz Buys New England Seafood as Sealaska Exits Europe

Sojitz Corporation took full ownership of Sealaska Foods International Holdings on October 2, folding UK processor New England Seafood International into the Tokyo group. The price was not disclosed. The seller is Sealaska Corporation, the Alaska Native company that spent six years building a European seafood platform and is now taking that cash home.

Sealaska, owned by more than 26,000 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian shareholders, said the sale is the first step in turning its global businesses into money for programmes in its own communities. Sojitz gets a UK factory network, whitefish supply in Norway and Iceland, and a fourth seafood deal in five years. Group accounts for 2024 still show a pre-tax loss.

An Alaska Native Corporation Cashes Out Europe

Sealaska is a for-profit corporation formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and incorporated in 1972. It is based in Juneau. Its shares are not publicly traded and cannot legally be sold, so the company pays its owners through dividends, scholarships, internships, burial aid and elder benefits rather than a stock-market exit.

Between 2014 and 2024 it paid $373 million in dividends and $8.6 million in scholarships, and it has run 346 internships. A spring 2026 distribution of $29.7 million went out on April 16. Those figures are the point of the European sale, not a side note.

The businesses sat inside Woocheen, Sealaska’s ocean-health unit, a Tlingit name the company translates as working together with the environment. On October 1, a day before Sojitz spoke, Sealaska told shareholders that Woocheen had sold Sealaska Foods International Holdings Limited, the UK parent of New England Seafood International and of companies in Norway and Iceland.

In recent years, Woocheen has created significant value in its global business platform. This transaction is the first step in its strategy to realize that value, enabling Sealaska Corporation to expand shareholder programs that directly impact its communities closer to home.

Sealaska Corporation, October 1, 2026 statement

The note closed with thanks in Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian, and promised more detail later. It did not name a price, and it did not say Woocheen is leaving seafood altogether. It said this sale lets Sealaska expand shareholder programs closer to home. That is the capital recycle the Tokyo announcement left in the background.

Sojitz Takes the Plants, the Brands and the Whitefish

Sojitz, the Tokyo-listed trading house, said it had acquired full ownership of the holding company and will consolidate New England Seafood International and the related companies. Daniel Thomas Aherne, who has run NESI as group chief executive, is listed as representative director of both the holding company and the UK processor.

NESI, incorporated in December 1990 and based at 48 Cox Lane in Chessington, Surrey, processes and sells seafood for the UK and the rest of northern Europe. Sojitz said the company holds a large share of UK mass-retail sales in cod and other white fish, wild Alaskan salmon, and sashimi-grade tuna, and that it carries Marine Stewardship Council and Aquaculture Stewardship Council certified lines.

Founder Fred Stroyan built the firm from a London foodservice trade. The consumer brands Leap, launched in 2017 around wild-caught fish, and Fish Said Fred, launched in 2020, sit beside a large private-label business for UK retailers. The holding company also brings whitefish raw-material networks in Norway and Iceland, which is the supply Sojitz named as the industrial prize.

WHAT SOJITZ BOUGHT

Turnover jumped. The group still lost money, as it had in 2021 and 2022. Sojitz is paying an undisclosed sum for a business that has scaled quickly and has not yet turned a pre-tax profit. That is the mixed ledger under the expansion language.

Why a Tokyo Trader Wants Cod in Chessington

Sojitz said Japan’s seafood market is reaching maturity, and it has named Europe and the United States as the growth markets for higher-value products. It put the UK seafood consumer market at USD 5.7 billion, citing Market Research Future, and said demand is shifting toward fish as a protein, plus raw ready-to-eat items, pre-seasoned ready-to-heat meals, sushi and other Japanese food.

The UK processing and retail trade is fairly concentrated, Sojitz argued, so a buyer can grow by serving a short list of big customers rather than building a fragmented door-to-door network. NESI already sells into those aisles. The new owner wants joint procurement with the Norway and Iceland arms, shared product-development and processing kit, and cross-selling across the two groups’ sales books.

White fish is the gap. Sojitz’s recent seafood record is tuna, sushi toppings and Japanese processing. NESI’s record is cod, salmon and tuna for British supermarkets. Put together, Tokyo gets a European factory that can take North Atlantic whitefish and pack it for the same shops that already buy its salmon and sashimi-grade tuna.

Sojitz also said it wants to push Japanese-style products and know-how abroad, while building local development that fits local habits. Ready-to-eat raw fish and ready-to-heat seasoned packs are the consumer trends it listed, not a plan to turn Chessington into a sushi plant overnight.

Six Years to Build, One Filing to Exit

Sealaska did not stumble into this portfolio. It assembled it, then sold it as a block.

THE EUROPEAN BUILD SEALASKA JUST SOLD

1. October 2, 2020: The UK holding company is incorporated as Sealaska European Holdings Limited, company number 12924086.
2. October 30, 2020: Sealaska announces it has acquired New England Seafood International. Stroyan keeps a stake and a board seat. Aherne stays as chief executive.
3. 2021: Woocheen takes stakes in Icelandic seafood firms IceMar and AG Seafood, extending the North Atlantic supply the UK plants already needed.
4. March 10, 2023: Woocheen buys a majority of Normarine, a whitefish trader in Ålesund, Norway. Directors Bjørn Fladmark and Erik Sindre Pedersen stay on to run it.
5. October 1, 2026: Sealaska tells shareholders Woocheen has sold the holding company, including NESI and the Norway and Iceland companies.
6. October 2, 2026: Sojitz confirms full ownership, and UK filings record the new Sojitz name the same day.

When Sealaska bought NESI in 2020, Stroyan said the alliance grew from his “passion for bringing the world’s best seafood to the UK” and that it locked in a globally connected enterprise built on quality and ocean health. Aherne, announcing the Normarine stake in 2023, said the investment “shortens the path between sea and plate” and puts Atlantic cod and haddock beside NESI’s Alaska line-caught Pacific cod.

Those were build quotes. The 2026 note is an unwind quote. The same UK-Norway-Iceland chain that Woocheen spent six years stitching together is the chain Sojitz is now plugging into its own seafood group.

The Fourth Seafood Deal Puts Europe on Sojitz’s Map

Sojitz has been buying seafood companies in a straight line. NESI is the first European processor in that line, and the first one that is not mainly a tuna or sushi story.

SOJITZ SEAFOOD DEALS SINCE 2022

• April 2022: Full ownership of The Marine Foods Corporation, a Japanese seafood processor bought from Nippon Ham, which Sojitz had announced that February.
• April 2023: Full ownership of TRY Inc., a frozen-tuna processor and seller in Japan, after an earlier minority stake.
• July 2024: All takeout sushi businesses in the United States from Sushi Avenue, a supermarket counter operator with more than 300 locations, mainly in the Midwest.
• October 2026: Full ownership of Sealaska Foods International Holdings, including NESI and the Norway and Iceland sourcing companies.

That is the fourth seafood deal in five years. The first two bulked up processing and tuna inside Japan. The third put Sojitz behind US grocery sushi counters. This one adds European whitefish, three English plants, and retail relationships Sojitz did not have to win from scratch.

The pattern is consistent even when the species change. Sojitz buys an operating company with factories and customers, then talks about joining procurement and product development across the group. Chessington is now that European factory. Whether joint buying actually cuts the loss that still sat on the 2024 accounts is the test the new owner has not yet had to sit.

Chessington Already Carries the New Name

The paperwork moved as fast as the press notes. On October 1 the holding company’s registered office left One New Change in the City of London and landed at NESI’s Chessington plant. On October 2, the same day as the Sojitz statement, Companies House recorded that Sealaska Foods International Holdings Limited had been renamed Sojitz Seafood International Holdings Limited. The live company record already carries the Sojitz name.

NESI’s own site still describes the company as part of Woocheen. That page will change. The factories will not. The processor runs three manufacturing bases in England: the Chessington chilled plant it moved into in 2005, a Grimsby site in the old fishing port, and a third plant in Paignton. Private-label retail, the Leap and Fish Said Fred brands, and foodservice all run through those three.

Leap and Fish Said Fred are not famous enough to start a public row, and they did not. The sale closed as a holding-company filing, which is why the brands will still sit in the same supermarket bays next week with a Tokyo parent and almost no argument about it. UK shoppers who buy the packs will not see Sealaska’s shareholder programmes, and they will not see Sojitz’s tuna plants. They will see the same fish, from the same three English sites, billed through a company whose legal name changed in a day.

Sealaska said it will keep shareholders informed as it takes further steps to realise value from the rest of Woocheen. Sojitz said it will keep growing the UK business and tie seafood resources in other regions to the new European hub. The price both sides declined to print is the one number that would show how much of that European build is now heading back to Juneau.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is an Alaska Native Regional Corporation?

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 created 13 regional corporations to hold land and run businesses for Alaska Native shareholders instead of a reservation system. Sealaska, the regional corporation for Southeast Alaska, was incorporated on June 16, 1972, and originally enrolled 15,782 shareholders, each receiving 100 shares. Those shares cannot legally be sold on the open market, which is why Sealaska returns cash through dividends and community programmes rather than a public listing.

Who Founded New England Seafood International?

Fred Stroyan founded the business around its 1990 incorporation and remains listed in company materials as founder. He started in foodservice, including lobster for London hotels and restaurants, and in 1993 began importing fresh tuna direct from Sri Lanka, a trade NESI still cites as an early speciality. He kept a stake and a board seat when Sealaska bought the company in 2020.

Did Sojitz Buy Sealaska’s Alaska Seafood Operations?

No. The deal is limited to Sealaska Foods International Holdings Limited and the companies under that UK parent, which Sealaska listed as New England Seafood International plus companies in Norway and Iceland. Sealaska’s land, its Juneau headquarters, and any remaining North American seafood or ocean-health units sit outside the sale as described by both sides.

What Do MSC and ASC Certification Mean on NESI Packs?

Marine Stewardship Council certification covers wild-caught fish from fisheries assessed for stock health and environmental impact. Aquaculture Stewardship Council certification covers farmed fish and looks at farm conditions and labour standards. Sojitz said NESI already sells lines with one or both marks, which is how the UK plants will keep making sustainability claims under the new owner without a new audit from scratch.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a completed corporate sale and is for information only. It is not investment advice, a solicitation to buy or sell Sojitz shares, or a valuation of Sealaska, which is not publicly traded. Readers who are considering any investment decision should consult a licensed financial adviser who can review their circumstances. Turnover, loss figures, shareholder counts and deal terms reflect the company statements and UK filings drawn on for this piece and may be updated in later accounts or notices.