Gorton’s Seafood
By the end of 2020, Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Gorton’s Seafood welcomed 5.1 million new households to the retail seafood category with products like its core breaded and battered pollock and shrimp offerings.
In March 2021, Kurt Hogan, the company’s president and CEO, told SeafoodSource that Gorton’s retail sales had surged 34 percent over the past year, led by its wild Alaska pollock entrees. Sales of breaded Alaska pollock products rose 46 percent over the course of 2020, Hogan added in March. Meanwhile, Gorton’s overall Q4 2020 sales were up 44 percent, a reflection of sustained consumer demand, according to Hogan.
Now, more than 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, “consumers are continuing to turn to our core breaded and battered seafood items, especially our pollock and shrimp items,” the frozen seafood manufacturer recently told SeafoodSource.
“With at-home-dining levels continuing to trend high, these items resonate because they provide a quick and easy mealtime solution that offers the versatility and customization to please all kinds of eaters. During a time of uncertainty, we were not surprised to see our consumers turn to the time-tested products that our brand is known for, as consumers knew they could trust us for consistently high-quality, great tasting seafood,” the company said.
Among Gorton’s core line of products are Beer Battered Fillets, Crunchy Breaded Fillets, Crispy Battered Fillets, Crunchy Breaded Fish Sticks, and its Fish Sandwich.
Additional platforms have also been experiencing strong growth in pandemic times, the company said, including Gorton’s Premium Cod Sticks and Cod Fillets, introduced in 2019, and its Simply Bake line, which expanded in 2020.
“We have also seen strong growth across other platforms – our recently launched Premium Cod Sticks and Cod Fillets are performing very well after having just launched in 2019. We are also seeing growth with our line of prep-, mess-, and stress-free Simply Bake items. We are delighted to see that consumers are trying items beyond our traditional breaded and battered pollock offerings to help round out their weekly meal planning,” Gorton’s said.
At the start of 2020, Simply Bake Cod became the first cod product to join the Simple Bake line. The product was developed “in response to the species’ popularity and consumer desire for easy-prep meals,” Gorton’s Vice President of Marketing Chris Hussey told SeafoodSource in February of last year. The line features Gorton’s proprietary Bake Perfect Oven Bag, that can “be placed in the oven (sauce included) with no prep and no mess,” Hussey said.
Alongside Simply Bake Cod, Gorton’s also introduced Parmesan Crusted Fillets in 2020. Featuring whole pollock fillets coated in crunchy parmesan and cracker crumb coating, the items “offer a great family-friendly option with a broadly appealing and unique new flavor.”
The company believes the pandemic’s profound impact on consumer behavior is likely to last, which is why Gorton’s is focusing on convenience and better-for-you lifestyle ingredients with its upcoming innovations: Air Fried Fish Fillets and Butterfly Shrimp, and Ancient Grains Crusted Fish Fillets.
Learn more about these new products coming soon from Gorton’s, as well as the company’s key pandemic takeaways, in this SeafoodSource Q&A.
Photo courtesy of Gorton's Seafood
