## 1. VISION, CORE BUSINESSES,AND STRATEGY 

High Liner has been in business since 1899. Our name has been a fixture in Canadian grocery retailing for more than 80 years and today Captain High Liner is one of the most highly recognized consumer brand icons in Canada. We are leveraging our Canadian strength to build upon our established retail presence in the United States and Mexico by introducing more of North America to the High Liner brand. 

In late 2007, High Liner acquired the North American manufacturing and marketing business of FPI Limited, including FPI’s prominent food service business headquartered in Danvers, Massachusetts. At the end of 2010, High Liner acquired Viking Seafoods, Inc. (the “Viking Acquisition” or “Viking”). Viking is a value-added company serving the U.S. food service seafood market from Malden, Massachusetts. 

At the end of 2011, High Liner acquired the U.S. subsidiary and Asian procurement operations of Icelandic Group h.f., one of the largest suppliers of value-added seafood to the U.S. food service market. (See Section 5.1 of this document and the Business Acquisition Report filed on SEDAR on March 16, 2012 for more details on this important acquisition (the “Icelandic USA Acquisition” or the “Acquisition”)). 

Although our roots are in the Atlantic Canada fishery, we purchase all our seafood raw material and some finished goods from around the world. From our headquarters in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, we have transformed our long and proud heritage into worldwide seafood expertise. We deliver on the expectations of the modern consumer by selling seafood products that respond to their demands for convenient, tasty, and nutritional food at good value. 

## 1.1 VISION 

At High Liner, our reputation for delivering outstanding seafood products is an advantage in the competitive North American market. Our vision sets our overall direction: 

We will be the leader in value-added frozen seafood in North America. 

We focus on frozen seafood, because we are experts in this category. We focus on value-added, as that is where we can gain the most differentiation from our competitors due to our excellent product development skills. We focus on North America because we see many opportunities for growth in the North American markets. The acquisitions that we have done in the past few years truly solidify our position as the leader in value-added frozen seafood in both Canada and the United States, especially in the food service channel. 

## 1.2 CORE BUSINESSES 

High Liner operates in the North American packaged foods industry. We process and market frozen seafood, and distribute products to retail and food service customers. We sell our own brands, including High Liner, Fisher Boy, FPI, Sea Cuisine, Mirabel and Royal Sea,  and we manufacture private labels. Late in 2010 the Viking Acquisition added the Viking family of products to our portfolio. In late 2011 the Icelandic USA Acquisition added the Samband of Iceland, Seaside  and Seastar  brands to our list of offerings. In addition, the Icelandic Seafood  brand is licensed to High Liner by the Icelandic Group. 

We own and operate six food-processing plants located in: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; Burin, Newfoundland & Labrador; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Danvers, Massachusetts; Newport News, Virginia; and Dalian, China. The Newport News and Dalian plants were part of the Icelandic USA Acquisition. We also operate a leased food-processing facility in Malden, Massachusetts, which was obtained as part of the Viking Acquisition. 

High Liner consists of two main business units, geographically based, being the United States and Canada: 

## United States Operations 

## RETAIL 

Our U.S. subsidiary produces and sells seafood products under the Fisher Boy, High  Liner and Sea Cuisine brands. The business distributes products throughout the United States and in Mexico. The club store channel is important to our growth strategy for the U.S. retail business, and we sell to all major U.S. club store chains. We have built business in this channel by introducing innovative premium products under the High Liner Sea Cuisine  brand. Fisher Boy  and Sea Cuisine brands are now sold under the umbrella of the High Liner brand so that we can market our products more efficiently. Our U.S. subsidiary also is the largest supplier of retail private label processed seafood in the United States. We produce over 50 different labels for U.S. grocery retailers, primarily breaded and battered fish sticks and portions. 

## FOOD SERVICE 

Customer channels in this business include food service operators in multiple restaurant segments, broad line food service distributors, specialty seafood distributors, and general line food processing companies. FPI is one of the largest seafood suppliers to this market. Due to the strength of the FPI  brand, this business is being managed as Fishery Products International, a division of High Liner Foods. It is particularly recognized for its innovative product development expertise for the food service channel. The Viking and Icelandic USA Acquisitions added new products to our food service offerings and has substantially increased High Liner Foods’ share of the market for value-added seafood products in the U.S. food service industry. 

