IN Brief:
- Norvelita and Nordian Group generated approximately €199 million of combined revenue in 2025.
- Norvelita operates a 25,000 sq m processing complex handling about 18,000 tonnes of fish annually.
- INVL is targeting shared procurement, production investment, export growth, and higher-value seafood categories.
INVL Private Equity Fund II has signed agreements to acquire Lithuanian fish processors Nordian Group and Norvelita, combining businesses with approximately €199 million of 2025 revenue into a larger regional seafood platform.
The €410 million private equity fund expects the transaction to complete in the coming months, subject to approval from the Lithuanian Competition Council. Founders of both processors are set to remain minority shareholders and continue working with the combined business after completion.
Norvelita is the larger manufacturing operation. The company specialises in smoked and salted salmon, operates a processing complex of about 25,000 square metres, and handles around 18,000 tonnes of fish products annually. It generated €152.7 million of consolidated revenue in 2025, employs about 650 people, and exports approximately 85% of its production to Western European markets.
Nordian Group combines fish processing with wholesale supply. Its consolidated revenue reached €46.3 million in 2025, while its companies employ about 176 people and supply fresh fish to major Lithuanian retail chains. The group is also targeting expansion into additional fish and seafood categories.
Nerijus Drobavičius, partner at INVL Private Equity Fund II, said the combination would bring together Norvelita’s established export business and Nordian’s growth plans. “With this transaction, we aim to create a strong, internationally competitive fish processing group where Norvelita’s experience and stable export business will complement Nordian Group’s growth ambitions.”
Procurement and capacity move to the centre
INVL has identified joint raw-material procurement and higher-value product development as areas where the businesses could work together. The logic is practical for seafood processing, where raw-material cost, availability, specification, yield, and cold-chain performance all have a direct effect on plant economics.
Purchasing scale can influence more than the headline price of fish. Larger procurement programmes can improve access to supply, broaden the choice of origins, and support longer-term agreements, but they also increase the need for consistent supplier approval, certification, traceability, and quality control. A larger buying position only translates into manufacturing advantage if plants can absorb the material without compromising chilling, smoking, slicing, packing, or delivery performance.
Norvelita already provides a substantial base for that expansion. The company says it continues to invest in manufacturing modernisation, advanced technology, operational efficiency, and process control, while its production mix spans cold-smoked, hot-smoked, graved, frozen, and other salmon products.
Jordanas Kenstavičius, founder and main shareholder of Norvelita, said the partnership would create room for further investment in production capacity and people while maintaining quality and customer trust. That balance will be important because an export-oriented processor serving Western European retail chains has to scale within tight customer specifications and audit requirements rather than simply increasing throughput.
Nordian brings a different commercial position. Its fresh-fish supply relationships in Lithuania add domestic market access, while its expansion plans extend into new seafood segments and export markets. The businesses are therefore complementary rather than identical: one brings a large export processing operation, while the other combines processing with wholesale and local retail supply.
Integration will take longer than the ownership change. Product specifications, supplier systems, food-safety controls, packaging formats, production planning, IT, purchasing, and customer service all have to remain stable while shared processes are introduced. A rushed consolidation can erase some of the value created by greater scale if service or quality suffers during the transition.
Capital allocation will be another early test. Norvelita already processes around 18,000 tonnes a year, so further growth may require investment in smoking, portioning, slicing, packing, refrigeration, storage, or labour-saving automation depending on the categories selected. Higher-value seafood can improve revenue per tonne, but it normally adds processing stages and tighter control requirements.
Energy use and cold-chain infrastructure also set practical limits. Seafood processing depends heavily on refrigeration, chilled storage, freezing, and controlled transport, while smoked and cooked products add thermal processes. Expanding volume without improving utility efficiency can leave a processor with higher sales but weaker margins if energy, labour, and waste rise faster than saleable output.
The proposed group will have more than 800 employees across the two businesses and close to €200 million in combined annual revenue. Scale at that level can support investment in automation, quality systems, procurement, and product development that would be harder to justify across smaller standalone operations.
The transaction still requires competition approval, and INVL has not disclosed a detailed integration timetable or capital programme. The manufacturing base is already clear, however: a 25,000-square-metre export plant, roughly 18,000 tonnes of annual processing at Norvelita, and a second business with established fresh-fish supply and expansion ambitions.
The commercial case will be tested after completion. Joint purchasing and a wider product portfolio are relatively straightforward objectives; turning them into better yield, dependable capacity, stronger export reach, and higher-value output without disrupting existing customers is the more difficult part of building the regional processor INVL has set out to create.
