John West Foods is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

-based seafood marketing company established in 1857, and currently owned by

Thai Union Group Thai Union Group is a Thailand-based producer of seafood-based food products. It was founded in 1977, and was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) on 22 November 1994. Thai Union operates worldwide with plant facilities in France, Germ ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. The company produces canned

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

and

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...

, as well as

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

sardine "Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the Ital ...

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

, brisling,

anchovies An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...

and

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...

History

The original company was founded by T. L. Pelling and C. H. Stanley, who created Pelling Stanley and Company in 1857. 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 Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, US. Pelling Stanley purchased the rights to use the John West name in 1888. The first shipments of John West Salmon appeared in 1892. By 1924, the three companies, operating separately, were all associated with

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

: *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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

in 1974. In 1997,

Heinz The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six conti ...

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. In June 2003,

Simplot The J. R. Simplot Company (commonly referred to as Simplot) is an agribusiness company headquartered in Boise, Idaho. History Simplot was founded in 1929 by 20-year-old John Richard Simplot near the agricultural community of Declo in south ...

Australia bought the John West canned fish business in Australia from Unilever Australasia. In March 2006, Heinz sold its European Seafoods business to French-based MW Brands, itself owned by

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

banking group, for

EUR The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . Th ...

425 million. In 2010,

-based seafood processing company

bought MWBrands, becoming the world's largest canned-tuna producer.

Sustainability issues

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. 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 Organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s due to its endangered status from overfishing, that all seafood products are caught in accordance with the

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...

(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 Longline fishing, or longlining, is a commercial fishing angling technique that uses a long ''main line'' with baited hooks attached at intervals via short branch lines called ''snoods'' or ''gangions''.drift nets, caught by boats from any flag state which is not a member of the relevant

Regional Fisheries Management Organisation A regional fishery body (RFB) is a type of international organization that is dedicated to the sustainability of fishery resources in a particular region, or of highly migratory species. An RFB is classified as one of the following two types: * reg ...

(RFMO), caught by fishing vessels which do not ban

shark finning Shark finning is the act of removing fins from sharks and discarding the rest of the shark back into the ocean. This act is prohibited in many countries. The sharks are often still alive when discarded, but without their fins.Spiegel, J. (2000 ...

, 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 Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

as selling the least sustainable tinned tuna in the UK in its Tuna League. 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. 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. By 2016 the company had reneged on this promise, with just 2% of its fish caught using pole-and-line. 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.Tuna doesn’t do what it says on the tin
''The Times'' (London), 14 October 2015 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".
''The Independent'' (London), 15 October 2015 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.

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 A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

. 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. However, in October 2015, John West was accused by conservation group

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 Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, in fact a large number of cans were sourced from canneries owned by John West's parent company Thai Union in the

Samut Sakhon Samut Sakhon ( th, สมุทรสาคร, Pronunciation is a City in Thailand, capital of Samut Sakhon province. It is a stop on the Maeklong Railway. Samut Sakhon is 48 km from Bangkok. It is part of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region ...

region of

. 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 Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

abuse and forced and bonded labor on fishing ships, and for the use of indiscriminate and harmful fishing methods. 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.John West changes website after Greenpeace accusations over traceability of Thai tuna
''Liverpool Echo'', 14 October 2015

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. It was filmed on Invercauld Estate, near Balmoral, on the River Dee in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

. The video campaign won multiple advertising industry awards.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

John West Foods - main siteJohn West Foods, AustraliaThe "Man vs Bear For Salmon" Video
Manufacturing companies based in Liverpool Food brands of the United Kingdom Internet memes Lehman Brothers Canned food Seafood companies of the United Kingdom Fish processing companies Food and drink companies established in 1857 1857 establishments in England 2010 mergers and acquisitions British subsidiaries of foreign companies