Jackson & Partners
As Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.-based seafood supplier Jackson & Partners was just starting out, the global COVID-19 pandemic hit. The results were challenging, according to Vincent “Bo” Jackson, the company’s president and CEO, but the firm didn’t let the pandemic stop it from generating an impressive range of seafood products for the U.S. market in less than a year.
The products on offer from Jackson & Partners include ready-to-eat meals, crab, shrimp, and plant-based seafood analogs. The firm operates seven core range banners, which include "All-Star Signature Sideliners," "World Series Ready-to-Eat Meals," "Pro Crab," and "Gotcha! Yes, It’s Plant Based."
The All-Star Signature Sideliners brand has been a particular source of resonance for the company over the course of 2020 and 2021, it recently told SeafoodSource. Through a partnership with Spanish frozen fish and seafood wholesale distributor, Globalimar, Jackson & Partners has been able to offer customers “authentic, chef-inspired recipes in seafood ready-to-eat meals that are direct from freezer-to-microwave,” the firm said.
“The meals use [Marine Stewardship Council]- and [Aquaculture Stewardship Council]-certified seafood, which is sold under the All-Star Signature Sideliners brand,” the company added.
Sustainability factors large into Jackson & Partners’ innovation process, it noted.
“We pride ourselves on our commitment to sustainability and social responsibility. That is what drives our daily decisions in product innovation as well as how we run our company,” the firm said.
In addition to products that feature MSC- and ASC-certified seafood, the company’s All-Star Sideliners Indian Farm-Raised Shrimp is 4-Star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certified. In March of this year, Jackson said the product’s footprint was being expanded into retailers throughout the U.S.
“We are very excited to showcase the quality, the care, and attention that we put into our All-Star branding and also into the expansion of this line into other value-added shrimp items,” according to Jackson, who is a former professional athlete with an enduring love for seafood.
“Five of the most responsible companies in India,” Jackson added, are among his company’s supplier partners.
“Our supply chain is considered proprietary and we are proud of the certifications that they hold and also with their initiatives in sustainability,” he said.
Additionally, Jackson & Partners also works with suppliers in several other countries to produce “high-quality seafood proteins like blue swimming crab, all-natural Mexican crab and shrimp, skin-pack and ready-to-eat meals, and several other species, including mahi and corvina,” according to Jackson. Within the company’s Pro Crab brand, for example, pasteurized blue crabmeat from Mexico and blue swimming crabmeat from Southeast Asia are featured.
Seafood and plant-based analogs will continue to be game-changers for Jackson & Partners heading into 2022, it said. The company has been hard at work crafting plant-based seafood analog products such as plant-based crab cakes, a New England chowder, and center-of-the-plate proteins.
“Jackson & Partners is looking to make a major investment in the plant-based category and is working on several projects under this division that will launch in 2021-2022,” Jackson said. “The technologies that we are utilizing on these are innovative and completely new to the market and we look to be an industry leader by the fourth quarter of 2022.”
In a SeafoodSource Q&A, Jackson & Partners shares its vision for the Gotcha! plant-based brand, as well as where else the company is looking to go in its sophomore year in business.
Photo courtesy of Jackson & Partners
