Bidfood UAE, one of the leading foodservice distributors in the country and part of JSE-listed Bidcorp Group, has announced its partnership with specialized seafood supplier Wet Fish via majority acquisition. 

The strategic partnership is a step toward developing Bidfood’s protein category, particularly seafood, and unlocking potential opportunities within the two companies to efficiently serve the UAE’s foodservice market.

Wet Fish, a family-run business born in the UAE 16 years ago, was founded by Mark Allan with one goal in mind: to source and supply high-grade fish and seafood to local fine dining restaurants, hotels and top-end hospitality operators in the UAE. 

The company established a first-class self-contained facility in Dubai Investments Park where all seafood items go through elaborate processing that saves customers preparation time, cuts unnecessary food waste, and ensures a more consistent end product. The latter includes descaling, cleaning, filleting, pin boning and portioning under safe and hygienic HACCP accredited standards.

“Partnering with Mark and his family at Wet Fish helps capitalize on both companies’ capabilities and available resources to achieve a healthy growth within the industry – which in turn creates value to all stakeholders involved,” said Hisham Al Jamil, CEO of Bidfood Middle East. “Wet Fish’s entrepreneurial mindset fits perfectly with Bidfood’s ethos.” 

Part of Bidfood UAE’s unfaltering belief – and ultimately its business success – lies in adopting a decentralized organizational structure and preserving the autonomy of business leaders. Accordingly, Wet Fish will continue to be run by its current founding team while benefitting from Bidfood’s best practices and learnings for its growth and expansion.

Echoing Al Jamil’s sentiment on the partnership, Allan said: “Bidfood has long proven why they are the leading partner to the foodservice industry. We are certain that combining Bidfood UAE’s capabilities with Wet Fish’s proposition will contribute to the long-term success of the business partnership and lead to our exponential growth in the UAE.”