Medley, Florida, U.S.A.-based Bonamar Corp. has purchased International Marketing Specialists, Inc., (IMS) with the goal of expanding its product line and extending its vertical integration.
Based in Newton, Massachusetts, IMS was founded in 1991 by Morty and Marc Nussbaum as a brokerage service serving several large Thai shrimp companies. It has since moved into direct importing and private-label packing of fresh and frozen value-added seafood products, with a focus on shrimp products, but also calamari, red snapper and other finfish, surimi, and crab meat. It owns and sells products under the DelicaSea brand.
“We are pleased to add IMS to our Bonamar family and we look with great enthusiasm to this division to strengthen our leadership in the market by adding a multitude of new product categories. Bonamar is committed to becoming a full line seafood resource, using value and innovation as a platform to provide safer value solutions to the mrketplace,” Bonamar CEO and Founder Argenis Contreras said in a press release. “As we add to our family of divisions, we increase our expertise and product offering to our US sales base.”
The acquisition comes in the wake of Bonamar’s purchase of International Pacific Seafoods in March 2018, which gave the company more office space, storage, and a sales team based on the U.S. West Coast. IMS products will now be available through Bonamar’s warehousing and distribution facilities in California, New York, and New England.
“Coupled with Bonamar’s broker network and direct national sales force, [this will] ensure maximum product penetration and customer service,” the company said its release.
Following the transaction, Morty Nussbaum will join Bonamar’s board of advisors, “tasked with the transition and continued development of the IMS division,” according to Contreras. Marc Nussbaum will continue leading IMS sales team as the vice president of sales, along with his brother Matt Nussbaumm, while John Randazzo will continue as a member of the retail department.
