John West Foods facts for kids
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| Seafoods | |
| Founded | 1857, as Pelling Stanley and Company |
| Owner | Thai Union Group |
John West Foods is a company from the United Kingdom that sells seafood. It started in 1857 and is now owned by the Thai Union Group from Thailand. The company sells many types of canned fish, like salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardine, herring, brisling, anchovies, and shellfish.
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History of John West
The company began in 1857 in Liverpool. Two people, T. L. Pelling and C. H. Stanley, started it as Pelling Stanley and Company. They soon focused on bringing in canned food, which was a new idea back then.
By 1879, they were importing canned salmon from a company in Oregon, US, called John West. Pelling Stanley bought the right to use the "John West" name in 1888. The first shipments of John West Salmon arrived in 1892.
By 1924, three companies were working separately but were all connected to a big company called Unilever:
- Angus Watson and Co.
- R B Green and Co.
- Pelling Stanley and Company
In 1964, Unilever brought these three companies together to form one company: John West Foods. The company grew and opened branches in Australia and Africa in 1974.
Later, in 1997, another company called Heinz bought the John West brand and most of its operations. However, the parts of John West in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa stayed with Unilever. In 2003, Simplot Australia bought the John West canned fish business in Australia from Unilever. Then, in 2006, Heinz sold its European seafood business to a French company called MW Brands.
In 2010, the Thailand-based seafood company Thai Union Group bought MW Brands. This made Thai Union Group the largest producer of canned tuna in the world.
How John West Works with Nature
John West says that its salmon, mackerel, and sardine products are caught in a way that helps keep the oceans healthy. This is called "sustainable fishing." These products have a special logo from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which means they meet high standards for good fishing.
John West also states that they do not sell fish that are endangered or very close to being endangered. For example, they have never sold bluefin tuna, which many groups worry about because of overfishing. They also say all their seafood is caught according to international rules and not from illegal fishing boats. They also avoid fish caught using harmful methods like long-line fishing or drift nets, which can accidentally catch other animals like sharks and turtles.
However, some groups have disagreed with these claims.
In 2008, a conservation group called Greenpeace looked at how sustainable different tuna brands were in the UK. They said John West sold the least sustainable tinned tuna. Greenpeace also criticized John West for using fishing methods that harm populations of turtles and sharks.
In 2011, John West promised to get all its tuna using more ocean-friendly methods by the end of 2016. These methods included "pole and line" fishing or "purse seine FAD-free" fishing (which means fishing nets without special devices that attract many different types of fish). They started selling pole and line tuna in September 2011.
But by 2016, the company had not kept its promise. Only about 2% of its tuna was caught using the pole-and-line method. This meant that about 98% of John West's tuna was still caught using methods that could harm the environment or other sea creatures like dolphins. Because of this, John West was ranked last again in Greenpeace's tuna sustainability list in 2015. John West said it was hard to find enough pole and line tuna to meet everyone's needs. Greenpeace replied that if big companies like John West invested more, there would be enough.
Finding Where Your Fish Comes From
John West is the only canned seafood company in the UK and Ireland that owns its own fishing boats. This helps them see exactly where their fish comes from. In 2011, after some disagreements, the company said it would make its supply chain fully clear to customers. They launched a "Can Tracker" on their website. This tool was supposed to let people trace each can of fish back to the exact boat and place where it was caught.
However, in 2015, Greenpeace said that John West had not kept its promise. They said the company's promise was "misleading." Greenpeace asked people to check the codes on John West cans. They found that even though the website showed tuna only coming from the Seychelles, Ghana, and Portugal, many cans actually came from canneries in Thailand. This was not shown on the website, and you couldn't trace these cans.
John West said this was "simply a website limitation." After this news was widely reported, John West changed its website. It now tells customers who want to trace a can from Thailand to email the company for more details.
The Bear Fight Commercial
In November 2000, John West released a TV advertisement that became very famous. It showed a bear fighting a fisherman over a fresh salmon. This video was watched over 300 million times on YouTube. It was filmed in the Scottish Highlands, near Balmoral Castle on the River Dee. This advertisement won many awards in the advertising industry.
