CEO Mark Williams. Image: Ocean Harvest
Now headquartered in the UK, Galway-founded Ocean Harvest has listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market at a market cap of £20m.
Irish-founded company Ocean Harvest Technology has raised £6m after listing on a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange.
Founded in Milltown, Co Galway in 2005, Ocean Harvest produces animal feed additives from multispecies seaweed blends. It is now headquartered in Theale, England.
The company officially listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market that allows smaller companies to float shares within a more flexible regulatory framework than those listed on the main exchange. Its market capitalisation at admission to the market was approximately £20m.
Last year, Ocean Harvest reported total revenue of €3m, of which more than €2.5m was from product sales – a 67pc increase on the previous year. The group has spent an estimated €20m in R&D and commercialisation since its founding.
Mark Williams, chief executive of Ocean Harvest, said last week that the London listing was an important milestone in the company’s journey and will assist its rapid growth.
“The funds raised will enable the group to continue to strengthen its global sales team and build out its supply chain. We will also continue to invest in R&D to innovate and enhance our existing customer offering in the fast-growing markets the group operates in,” Williams said.
“We are confident in our ability to deliver on the opportunities ahead and I look forward to providing updates on our progress as our business develops.”
Ocean Harvest is now a team of 40 full-time employees. Seaweed harvested from its operations in Galway are shipped to another facility in Vietnam’s Binh Duong province, where they are processed into the company’s trademarked feed ingredients for multiple species of animals.
The company operates in a large and growing global animal feed market, which produces more than 1bn metric tonnes of feed per year. According to Ocean Harvest, the industry had an approximate value of $500bn in 2021, with the feed additive and specific ingredient segments forecast to grow at 5pc a year until 2031.
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