- Long-standing Western Australian seafood processing, wholesaling and retail business Catalano’s Seafood is preparing to debut on the ASX
- It is raising up to $6 million through its 20 cents IPO, which closes February 10
- The company hopes to deliver a ‘store within a store’ seafood concept inside independent food retail stores across the nation
- The goal is to have a presence in 40 stores within two years and in order to get there, the company’s preparing to list on the ASX. Its IPO raise is open
- The company is set to list on February 24 with the ticker code CSF
Catalano’s Seafood (CSF) is a well-known Western Australian processor, wholesaler and retailer with ambitions to expand its footprint throughout the eastern states of Australia.
Under the Prospectus, the company is seeking to raise $5 million to $6 million (before costs) by issuing up to 30 million shares at 20 cents per share.
The Catalano family was farming south of Perth until 1969 when Francesco Catalano bought a fish and chip shop in Perth’s southern suburb of Cannington. That was the company’s CEO Nick Catalano’s father.
Catalano’s now has three outlets, employs about 70 staff, processes a couple thousand tonnes of WA seafood each year and has sales reaching about $20 million.
“As a family business you can’t go back and make it smaller and you can’t stay the same, so for us to achieve our goals and our dreams in business, we really needed a capital injection,” Mr Catalano said.
“We’ve had tremendous support from our customers over the years, whether it be back in the old days, or today with the business we do from a retail point of view.
“Not only do we get this capital injection, but we give our loyal customers the opportunity to even invest if they really wish to.”
Catalano family members will continue to be involved in the company.
“We are already in growth mode,” Nick Catalano said.
“We’ve invested in equipment so we are able to now package fish in a more sophisticated way,” he said.
“We’re able to invest in people – very, very important – we have already an office in Melbourne so we’re looking to prepare a pilot of a retail concept.”
Catalano’s has developed a ‘store within a store’ concept in which the company offers turnkey operations to independent supermarkets, a concept already operational in WA.
The company hopes to deliver the concept inside independent food retail stores across the nation, after conducting a pilot store in Melbourne
The goal is to have a presence in 40 stores within two years.
Mr Catalano said the company’s retail store concept filled a niche.
“You have independent supermarkets across the nation, there is about 2000 of them, that don’t really have a seafood solution,” he said.
“What we are providing is a seafood category management system, where they don’t have to go look for fisherman to supply them fresh fish or deal with different wholesalers, we actually come along and say ‘look this is what we will do for you, we will provide refrigeration, we provide the service, and the Catalano brand,’ all they gotta do is actually sell it to their customers.”
Mr Catalano said that from a retail point of view, the company is excited about the concept.
“Once we get our pilot off and running in Melbourne, we will then go from that store to others and we expect that over the next two years, we hope to have about 40 of those on a national level,” he said.
Catalano’s Seafood IPO offer closes on February 10. If all goes to plan, the company is planning to list on February 24 with the ticker code CSF.