Creation Gardens, a Louisville, Kentucky-based foodservice company, is venturing into the seafood business.
The company announced in a press release Thursday it had acquired Bluefin Seafood, also based in Louisville. The deal has closed, company officials said, though terms were not revealed. The purchase, the company’s third this year, will allow Creation Gardens to sell more than 300 fresh and frozen seafood products in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee, along with its current assortment of produce, meats, dairy, and gourmet products.
“This acquisition now completes our quest to offer all of the challenging product lines in foodservice, where focused teams of experts can concentrate on producing a superior product as distribution distractions gets pulled out and put on our incredible service platform,” Creation Gardens President Ron Turnier said. “We choose to offer our chefs daily delivery, industry leading cut-off times, broken cases, 6,500 stock items, state of the art technology and unmatched service in lieu of a traditional sales force. Our chefs will now be able to access almost everything they need to operate their culinary program.”
As a result of the sale, Bluefin staff will now work as a division of the company. The company was founded 27 years ago, operating out of a meatpacking facility, with two refrigerated trucks and seven workers. It currently serves more than 400 restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, country clubs, and national chain establishments with seafood products from around the world. Bluefin founder Ken Berry initially started in the seafood industry by working on shrimp boats in the mid-Atlantic before venturing into the production business. He will remain in a leadership role overseeing Bluefin’s operations, the company announced.
“Our customers and our team have so much respect for what Ken and his team have built,” Turnier said. “Ken has been a personal mentor to me for nearly 18 years and we are so excited to be working together.”
Creation Gardens currently employs more than 450 employees. Its fleet of more than 120 trucks serve nearly 3,000 establishments in the four-state area.
