Lerøy traces its roots back to 1939 as a seafood wholesaler and exporter. It bought its first wholly owned salmon farming operation in 2003 and has developed into a fully integrated international seafood supplier with three business segments; Farming, Value Added Processing, Sales and Distribution (VAPSD), and Wildcatch. Farming is the largest business segment in terms of contribution to profit and is divided into three geographic regions; Lerøy Sjøtroll in western Norway (40% of production), Lerøy Midt in central Norway (40%), and Lerøy Aurora in northern Norway (20%). Lerøy also owns 50% of UK salmon farmer Scottish Sea Farms Ltd. through a joint venture with SalMar ASA. VAPSD is the largest segment in terms of revenues and mainly processes, sells and distributes the company's own production. It is among the largest seafood processors in Europe and its processing facilities are located in Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Turkey. The Wildcatch segment comprises Norway's largest fishing company, Lerøy Havfisk (Havfisk), which owns and operates 10 trawlers, and whitefish processor and distributor Lerøy Norway Seafood, which takes deliveries from more than 600 fishing vessels. These businesses were acquired in 2016.
Austevoll Seafood ASA, a pelagic fishery company, became Lerøy's majority owner in 2008 and currently holds 52.7% of the shares. Some 55.6% of the shares in Austevoll Seafood are owned by Laco AS, an investment company owned by the Møgster family. Both Lerøy and Austevoll Seafood are listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.