BIM's Seafood Business Advisory Programme is providing Irish seafood companies with tailored support across financial performance, succession planning and mergers and acquisitions. The initiative responds to a sector where an estimated 85% of businesses are family owned, many of them now navigating leadership transitions alongside rising costs and shifting export markets.

The programme, detailed by BIM, pairs participating companies with a panel of experienced business advisers who work directly with owners to identify weaknesses and implement practical financial and governance solutions.

BIM, Ireland's seafood agency, is headquartered in Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, and operates under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; its Seafood Development Programme delivered €21.9 million in grant aid across 1,606 operations in 2025. Kilkenny-based Goatsbridge Trout Farm and Downings-based McBride Fishing, which produces around 2,000 tonnes of brown crab and blue lobster annually, are both privately held family businesses.

The structural driver behind the programme is the concentration of ownership succession across a single generational window, with BIM identifying planning for leadership handover as a priority given how many Irish seafood businesses carry two or three generations working side by side.

Mags Kirwan of Goatsbridge Trout Farm said the process of building a financial model through the programme changed how the business plans investment, with the resulting model now used directly for business decisions and future planning.

BIM chief executive Richard Donnelly said the programme gives companies "access to experienced financial advisers who understand the realities of the sector" and can "deliver measurable improvements," adding that succession planning is "particularly important" given how many businesses operate across two or three generations.

For the sector, the programme confirms that structured financial and succession advisory support is becoming standard state-agency provision for family-owned seafood businesses, rather than a service reserved for larger commercial operators.

Source: bim.ie / afloat.ie / thefishingdaily.com