Pilbara’s seafood variety, quality appeals to Catalano’s Seafood as they close in on ASX debut

The Pilbara’s location, variety and quality have made for an appealing source of seafood for one of WA’s largest family-run seafood business, with products sourced from the region since the mid-1980s. Catalano’s Seafood entered the seafood market when the family’s patriarch Francesco Catalano purchased a fish-and-chip shop in Perth’s southern suburb of Cannington in 1969. The business now has three outlets with about 70 staff and processes a couple thousand tonnes of WA seafood each year, majority of which comes out of Point Samson, Karratha and Onslow. Catalano’s Seafood chief executive Nick Catalano said sourcing from the Pilbara provides them with about 60 varieties of fish. “It’s a very exciting fishery, very well-managed these days by the fisheries and you get all red fish, the likes of red snapper,” he said. “Going back to the days of the Kraus family, who was trawling fish out of Point Samson, we actually were able to, for the first time, put fish like blue spot emperor and all those red fish into Coles. “I think the variety of different species, the fact that it’s not that far from Perth and quality makes sourcing from the Pilbara special.” The company is now closing in on making its debut on the ASX to expand operations and increase its retail supply footprint nationwide. Mr Catalano said listing would assist the company achieve bold growth plans to supply more quality WA-produced seafood and export within its niche retail segment. “Our industry is in the box seat to further develop the wild caught and aquaculture fishery sectors, providing sustainably meeting growing seafood demand,” he said. “There are more than 2000 independent supermarkets across Australia. . . we see a huge opportunity to put West Australian seafood into more of them.” Launching an IPO to raise upwards of $5 million in December last year, the company will look to debut in late February.