John West Foods

John West Foods is a United Kingdom-based seafood marketing company established in 1857, and currently owned by Thai Union Group of Thailand. The company produces canned salmon and tuna, as well as mackerel, sardine, herring, brisling, anchovies and shellfish.

John West Foods Ltd
TypeSeafoods
Founded1857 (1857), as Pelling Stanley and Company
OwnerThai Union Group
Websitewww.john-west.co.uk

History

The original company was founded by T. L. Pelling and C. H. Stanley, who created Pelling Stanley and Company in 1857.[1] The company soon specialized in importing canned food, which at the time was a novel product. By 1879, they were importing canned salmon from the John West company in Oregon, US. Pelling Stanley purchased the rights to use the John West name in 1888. The first shipments of John West Salmon appeared in 1892.[2][3]

By 1924, the three companies, operating separately, were all associated with Unilever:

  • Angus Watson and Co.
  • R B Green and Co.
  • Pelling Stanley and Company

By 1964, Unilever had merged the three into one company, John West Foods. Branches were expanded to Australia and Africa in 1974.

In 1997, Heinz acquired the brand and the majority of the John West Food company operations, excluding those in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa which continued to be part of Unilever.[4] In June 2003, Simplot Australia bought the John West canned fish business in Australia from Unilever Australasia.[5] In March 2006, Heinz sold its European Seafoods business to French-based MW Brands, itself owned by Lehman Brothers banking group, for EUR 425 million.[6][7]

In 2010, Thailand-based seafood processing company Thai Union Group bought MWBrands, becoming the world's largest canned-tuna producer.[8]

Sustainability issues
John West canned fish

John West states that their salmon, mackerel and sardine products are certified to the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) standard for a well-managed and sustainable fishery, and that every can in these ranges carries the Marine Stewardship Council logo.[9]

John West also states that they do not sell endangered or critically endangered species from the International Union Conservation of Nature Red List, have never sold blue fin tuna, which is the subject of numerous campaigns from Non-Governmental Organizations due to its endangered status from overfishing,[10][11][12] that all seafood products are caught in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and are not bought from IUU (Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated) vessels, neither does it buy any fish that has been transshipped at sea, caught by long-line fishing or drift nets, caught by boats from any flag state which is not a member of the relevant Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO), caught by fishing vessels which do not ban shark finning, or caught by vessels which do not have a European Union sanitary agreement.

However several of these claims have been disputed by other bodies.

In August 2008, John West was assessed by conservation group Greenpeace as selling the least sustainable tinned tuna in the UK in its Tuna League.[13][14] It was also criticised for indiscriminate use of destructive fishing methods leading to the decimation of turtle and shark populations, and Greenpeace noted that John West failed to show sufficient care in selecting healthier fish stocks.[15]

In 2011, the company committed to source all of its tuna through a combination of pole and line and purse seine FAD-free (fish aggregation devices) sustainable catch methods by the end of 2016. The first step towards this was the launch of pole and line tuna in September 2011.[16][17]

By 2016 the company had reneged on this promise, with just 2% of its fish caught using pole-and-line.[18][19] The estimated 98% of John West's tuna caught using methods harmful to the environment or to other species such as dolphins, lead the company to last place again in Greenpeace's 2015 tuna sustainability ranking.[20][21] John West stated that "Quite simply, there is no longer enough pole and line tuna available to meet global demand ... we have found it extremely difficult to increase the proportion of John West pole and line tuna that we can provide".[22] In a rebuttal, Greenpeace pointed out that it was the lack of investment from large fleet-owners and processors like John West that result in this situation, and that John West had felt it achievable in 2011.[23][24]

Traceability

John West is the only UK and Ireland canned seafood manufacturer to wholly own a fleet of vessels which ensures it has visibility of its entire fishing supply chain. In October 2011, following the above controversies, the company advertised that its supply chain would be made fully transparent for its consumers by allowing "100% tracing" by the public of each can of fish to the original boat and location of catch, using a ‘Can Tracker’ on the company's website.[25] The application enabled John West consumers to track the exact source of the fish in their can including the ocean and even the boat that made the catch.[26]

However, in October 2015, John West was accused by conservation group Greenpeace of not standing by their word, and of having made a "deeply misleading" and "plainly false" promise to this effect. Greenpeace asked for volunteers to check the traceability codes on John West cans. It was found that although the website showed tuna only being caught in the Seychelles, Ghana and Portugal, in fact a large number of cans were sourced from canneries owned by John West's parent company Thai Union in the Samut Sakhon region of Thailand. This was not disclosed on the website, and tracing was not provided for such cans; the area's fishing industry is also notorious for human rights abuse and forced and bonded labor on fishing ships, and for the use of indiscriminate and harmful fishing methods.[27][23][28]

John West described the omission as "simply a website limitation". The controversy became widely reported in the news, leading to John West changing its website to state that customers wishing to trace a can from Thailand should email the company instead, for further details.[29]

Bear fight commercial

In November 2000 John West released a television advertisement depicting a bear fighting a fisherman for a fresh salmon. The video was viewed over 300 million times.[30] It was filmed on Invercauld Estate, near Balmoral, on the River Dee in the Scottish Highlands. The video campaign won multiple advertising industry awards.[31][32][33]

References
  1. "Pelling, Stanley and Co". Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  2. Bernard O'Brien (2007). "The History of the Company". Bernard O'Brien. Retrieved 23 July 2007.
  3. "John West - About John West - History". John West. 2008. Retrieved 1 December 2009.
  4. "Heinz expands canned seafood business with acquisition of John West Foods". PR Newswire. 30 June 1997. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2007. Pittsburgh, June 30 - H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ) today announced that its affiliate, H.J. Heinz Company, Limited of London, has acquired John West Foods Limited, the leading brand of canned tuna and fish in the U.K., from Unilever
  5. "Fishing trip for Simplot lands a $140m catch". www.theage.com.au. 21 June 2003. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  6. TheManufacturer.com (20 March 2006). "Heinz rejects John West". TheManufacturer.com. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2007. ...Food manufacturer HJ Heinz will have one variety less to offer following today's announcement that it has completed the sale of its European seafood business
  7. "FIS - Suppliers - Company Details". fis.com.
  8. "Thai Union Frozen To Buy MW Brands for $883 million". The Wall Street Journal. 28 July 2010. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
  9. John West. "About John West - Sustainability". John West. Retrieved 26 July 2011.
  10. Sea Shepherd. "Sea Shepherd announces Mediterranean campaign for the Bluefin tuna". Sea Shepherd. Archived from the original on 12 February 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  11. Greenpeace. "Sea Shepherd announces Mediterranean campaign for the Bluefin Tuna". Greenpeace. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  12. Ocean Sentry. "Bluefin Tuna". Ocean Sentry. Archived from the original on 15 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  13. "John West is 'least green tuna supplier'". The Grocer. 16 August 2008.
  14. Renton, Alex (18 August 2008). "Time to change your tuna?". The Guardian.
  15. Greenpeace. "Tinned Tuna's Hidden Catch" (PDF). Greenpeace. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  16. FishNewsEU. "John West launches pole and line range of Tuna products". FishNewsEU. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  17. "John West launches new pole and line range tuna". Talking Retail. 29 July 2011.
  18. Swerling, Gabriella (26 July 2016). "Tesco drops John West tuna over use of harmful trawling". The Times. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  19. "John West accused of breaking tuna pledge". BBC News. 6 October 2015.
  20. "Tuna League Table 2015" (PDF). Greenpeace. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  21. Tuna doesn’t do what it says on the tin, The Times (London), 14 October 2015
  22. John West accused of breaking its pledge on line-caught, sustainable tuna, The Independent (London), 15 October 2015
  23. Densham, Ariana (12 October 2015). "John West's broken promises". Greenpeace. Archived from the original on 28 February 2016.
  24. "John Worst Tuna". The Times. 6 October 2015.
  25. GreenWiseBusiness.co.uk. "John West provides full traceability of fish to public". GreenWiseBusiness. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2011. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  26. SeaFoodSource.com. "John West TV ads tout traceable tuna". SeaFoodSource. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  27. McClenaghan, Maeve (14 October 2015). "John West promises transparency but buries links to Thai tuna". Greenpeace. Archived from the original on 12 June 2016.
  28. "John West tuna: Greenpeace challenges tracing claims". The Guardian. 14 October 2015.
  29. John West changes website after Greenpeace accusations over traceability of Thai tuna, Liverpool Echo, 14 October 2015
  30. "Star Wars Kid is top viral video". BBC News. 27 November 2006. Retrieved 23 July 2007.
  31. Lucas, Dean (2000). "Famous Picture Magazine - John West Salmon Bear Fight". Famous Picture Magazine. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  32. "The Top 10 funniest TV ads of all time". campaignlive.co.uk.
  33. "tellyAds - ITV Ad of the Decade". tellyads.com.
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