SET-listed Thai Union Group Plc (TU), the world's biggest tuna exporter, has posted a rise of 19% in net profit to 6.1 billion baht in 2015, with sales rising by 3.1% to 125 billion baht despite a sluggish global market.
President and chief executive Thiraphong Chansiri said the rise in sales was due largely to the strong performance of its leading seafood brands in Europe and the successful integration of recent acquisitions MerAlliance, King Oscar and Orion.
Other factors were the strong recovery of its Thailand-based shrimp-processing operations and successful restructuring of USPN, its US-based pet food producer.
"This is another great year with record sales and net profit. The result demonstrates our resilience and ability to grow in spite of a host of challenges faced by Thailand and the global seafood industry," said Mr Thiraphong.
He said the appreciation of the US dollar against the baht also had a positive impact, allowing the company to gain higher sales value in baht terms.
Based on Thai Union's sales in 2015, tuna still took the largest share of business, accounting for 37% of revenue, followed by shrimp and related business at 29%. Salmon provided 9%, pet food 7%, sardine and mackerel business 6% and value-added and other products 12%.
The sales contribution from the company's own brands was stable at 41% in 2015, with the balance coming from private-label sales.
The US remained Thai Union's largest market at 42% in 2015, followed by Europe at 29%, Thailand at 8%, Japan at 6% and other markets at 14%.
Despite the cancellation of the Bumble Bee acquisition in late 2015, the company is committed to holding on to its 2020 sales target of US$8 billion, Mr Thiraphong said.
In 2016, Thai Union will focus more on exports of frozen food products to emerging markets, aiming to boost revenue from the sector from 1% to 5% of total revenue, said managing director Peerasak Boonmechote.
"The company will focus on emerging markets such as the Middle East and the Scandinavian countries because they have high potential and we aim to expand our market share," he said.
Mr Peerasak said the company also wanted to increase new innovations for products to serve customers in each segment.
Thai Union is aiming for growth of 10-15% in its shrimp business to $1.42 billion, largely from rising overseas demand as prices remain low.
The company plans to use e-commerce to serve changing consumers' lifestyle, Mr Peerasak said.
It will also focus more on imported products such as US premium lobster to serve rising demand from top restaurants and hotels in Thailand.
Production capacity of its shrimp business in Thailand was 250,000 tonnes last year, but the figure is expected to rise to 270,000 to 300,000 tonnes this year.
"Thailand's shrimp exports have dropped substantially over the past few years due to the outbreak of early mortality syndrome. However, we believe exports will recover soon as the outbreak has ended," Mr Peerasak said.
Thai Union owns brands such as John West in Britain and Chicken of the Sea in the US.
In 2015, Thai Union faced a sharp depreciation of the euro against the baht, affecting the accounting translation of its European subsidiaries' performances, while the skipjack tuna raw material price fell to a six-year low.
In addition, the global shrimp raw material price correction hit its US-based trading and its local processing businesses. The company also faced increased global competition as well as sustainability issues that piled the pressure on Thailand.