Cooke Inc.

Cooke Inc.
Company typePrivate company
IndustryAquaculture
Founded1985; 39 years ago (1985) in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada
Founders
  • Gifford Cooke
  • Glenn Cooke
  • Michael Cooke
Headquarters
Saint John, New Brunswick, New Brunswick
,
Canada
Key people
  • Glenn Cooke
    (CEO)
ProductsSeafood
RevenueIncrease CA$4 billion (annually)
Number of employees
nearly 13,000 (2023)
DivisionsCooke Aquaculture Inc.
Subsidiaries
Websitecookeseafood.com

Cooke Inc. (also known as Cooke Seafood or Cooke Aquaculture) is a Canadian multinational seafood company based in New Brunswick, in which it is headquartered in Saint John. Founded in 1985 as a family-ran salmon farm in Blacks Harbour, Cooke stands as the largest privately held seafood company globally.[1][2][3][4] The family-run company operates several vessels and processing facilities under multiple divisions, subsidiaries, and brand names internationally. Outside of its origin business in New Brunswick, the company has run salmon aquaculture operations in Maine and Washington of the U.S. division and Chile (Cooke Chile) of the South American division,[5] and Scotland of the European division.

Since its formation, Cooke Inc. has made approximately 100 acquisitions,[6] 14 of which, since 2016, being major acquisitions worth $2.5 billion. As of 2023, Cooke employs nearly 13,000 people, including 2,500 in Atlantic Canada. The company operates in 14 countries and utilizes 800 vessels along with 30 processing plants, while using their own hatcheries and feed plants. Cooke currently makes annual revenues of CA$4 billion.[3] Among the number of companies acquired by Cooke include Icicle Seafoods (2016), Omega Protein (2017),[7] and Tassal (2022).

  1. ^ Bissett, Kevin (12 December 2018). "Seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture joins Irvings, McCains as New Brunswick business royalty". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  2. ^ Bissett, Kevin. "Fast-expanding seafood giant joins Irvings, McCains as N.B. business royalty - New Brunswick". Global News. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b Mills, Don; Campbell, David (7 December 2023). "Podcast: Glenn Cooke discusses how Cooke Inc. has quietly become the largest privately owned seafood company in the world". Country 94. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  4. ^ Bissett, Kevin (13 December 2018). "New Brunswick's newest empire". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Cooke Chile unveils branding for new EU certified organic 'Shima' salmon". SalmonBusiness. 17 April 2024. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
  6. ^ "Fast-expanding seafood giant joins Irvings, McCains as N.B. business royalty - BNN Bloomberg". BNN. The Canadian Press. 12 December 2018.
  7. ^ "Cooke Inc". seafood.media. seafood.media. Retrieved 9 December 2023.