PAN African conglomerate Lonrho, which recently acquired a major stake in Cape Town-based Fish-on-Line, is making great strides in securing large retail orders.

Lonrho‘s seafood division, Oceanfresh, recently announced that its hake fillets would be sold in 500 Walmart stores in the US from next month.

While the Walmart deal is certain to materially impact the fledgling divisions’ profit lines, it should be noted that other major retail deals are already in the pipeline.

Oceanfresh recently made its first shipment of hake fillets to US convenience store chain ‘fresh & easy’, where it will initially be supplying 70 of the 170 fresh & easy stores in the US.

In the UK Lonrho directors reported that ‘lent promotions’ in Costco have already yielded additional sales and fresh product has also been delivered as ASDA.

In South Africa Oceanfresh has already cracked the nod at Makro (to provide a private label product under the ‘M brand’) and supermarket giant Pick n Pay.