Bristol Seafood
For Portland, Maine, U.S.A.-based Bristol Seafood, the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t alter the supplier’s innovation process, but it did provide “some direction” for its latest retail range, the company recently told SeafoodSource.
Bristol called its Seafood Singles range, announced in June 2021, “a pandemic brainchild.” Featuring center-cut Atlantic salmon portions paired with compound butter and spices, the line highlights how “convenient and high-quality frozen seafood can be,” according to Bristol Seafood Vice President of Marketing Iréne Moon. Packed in perforated, easy-peel singles, the range comes in flavors such as lemon and pesto butter, and ginger and garlic butter.
"With Bristol Seafood Singles, the consumer has easy access to the number of portions they want for their meal at a moment's notice. Combining this convenience with our values of sustainability, clean ingredients, gourmet flavor, and minimal packaging is something everybody can be excited about," Moon said of the new offerings in June.
The Bristol Seafood Singles range is the latest incumbent into the firm’s extensive seafood portfolio, which includes IQF bags of scallops, shrimp, haddock, and cod; its My Fish Dish value-added skin-pack line, sold both frozen and in slack-and-sell formats; and its Bristol Grab & Go retail range, launched in February 2021.
With all of its offerings, Bristol looks to “make a positive lasting impact on the world,” the company said.
“We believe that eating more seafood has the power to improve people's health, reverse trends contributing to climate change, and preserve our freshwater resources,” it explained. “We are on a mission to make seafood America's favorite protein by consciously and transparently sourcing quality seafood, responsibly producing it in Maine, and bringing convenience and flavor that shoppers and restaurant guests will love. That is why we are the first Fair Trade-certified seafood company in the U.S., and we are bringing new products to market to eat seafood at home more often.”
As more consumers started cooking from home during the pandemic, the company saw sales of its value-added My Fish Dish range increase dramatically, it revealed in August 2020. The popular line, first announced in March 2019, includes high-quality seafood along with seasonings, sauces, compound butters, and marinades “to give the home cook a convenient way to achieve restaurant results.” Bristol expanded the range in February 2020 with grab-and-go items, wild-caught cold-water shrimp, and new flavors such as Lemon & Pesto Butter, Sweet Chili, and Garlic & Herb.
Rapid growth in the U.S. seafood grab-and-go segment prompted the supplier to introduce its Bristol Grab & Go retail range earlier this year. Line-caught Alaska cod and farmed Atlantic salmon, among other items, are showcased in the range, which seeks to provide “quality seafood in a contemporary format aimed at delighting the evolving retail seafood consumer,” the company said in February.
Scallops have been popular over the course of 2020 and 2021 so far, Bristol noted – and this popularity doesn’t appear to be dissipating anytime soon.
“Consumers have gained a love for scallops in the last decade. The majority of this was consumed in restaurants. When eating out in restaurants was not an option at the start of the pandemic, consumers started cooking them at home and realized how easy it was,” the firm said. “The retail demand has become so high that prices more than doubled, and it's not easing. North Atlantic scallop prices are high, and while the imports from Peru and Japan prices have also increased, the increase is much more moderate. These imported scallops are gaining popularity both in foodservice and retail.”
As it prepares for 2022, Bristol said it has exciting announcements in store that support its “mission to make seafood America's favorite protein.”
“Stay tuned!” it said.
Photo courtesy of Bristol Seafood
