GENDEV GROUP

Gendev was founded in the fifties by Mr. A.P. Du Preez Snr and Mr. P.S.G Neethling Snr. The company was 100% owned by Suiderland Corporation, a South African Company and specialised in catching, canning, fishmeal processing and the marketing of pelagic products – namely tinned pilchards and fishmeal.

​From the fifties to the eighties, the pilchard biomass was healthy and Gendev then employed over 1500 people. Shortly after Independence, Gendev commenced with a Namibianisation process, and Guinas Investment and Dun-Al (another Namibian shareholder) came onboard as shareholders of Gendev.

​In 1992, Gendev invested in a tuna canning plant and by 1993 the canning of pilchard and tuna, combined, employed 1465 people – making Gendev one of the major employers in the country. In 1993/1994, Gendev pioneered the canning of Horse Mackerel but the canning processing could not last, because of the tins manufacturing technology at the time.

​In 1998, Gendev Fishing Resources (Pty) Ltd was granted mid water Trawl Horse Mackerel rights and in 2000, the pilchard canning plant was replaced with a state of the art freezing plant, to process the pilchard quota of Genmir Marine.

The company underwent a few transformations over the years but today Gendev is a proudly 72% Namibian owned company. Shareholders include Gendev Fishing Resources (Pty) Ltd; Guinas Investment (Pty) Ltd; Dun-Al Fishing (Pty) Ltd; Compoposato Investments (Pty) Ltd; Vernier Investments (Pty) Ltd and Eco Fish Processors (Pty) Ltd.