New York City, U.S.A.-based seafood importer Mark Foods has acquired Newport, Rhode Island-based Endeavor Seafood.
Mark Foods first made an equity investment in Endeavor Seafood in 2021 and said the new transaction is the next step in the partnership that the companies have formed since that purchase. The financial details of the purchase were not disclosed.
"We are pleased to welcome the Endeavor Seafood team to Mark Foods. Since our initial investment in 2021, we have seen firsthand the talent, dedication, and quality this team brings,” Mark Foods CEO Barry Markman said in a release. “Fully integrating the business was a natural next step that will allow Mark Foods to better serve our customers and continue to expand our seafood offerings.”
Mark Foods said that Endeavor Seafood co-founders Mike Bush and Todd Clark – the latter of whom has also served as the chair of the National Fisheries Institute – will both stay on at the company with Mark Foods, while Co-Founder George Souza will continue with a planned retirement but “has agreed to continue to serving Mark Foods in an advisory capacity,” the company said.
“Having held senior seafood sourcing positions with some of the top food companies in the country, the founders of Endeavor have a strong understanding of the important needs of its customers, such as strict product specification compliance, continuity of supply, sustainability, and on-time deliveries,” Mark Foods said.
Endeavor was founded in 2001, and Bush told SeafoodSource in 2019 it was born out of a deep-seated interest in fish and the marine environment.
“The entire Endeavor team is excited to fully integrate with Mark Foods and enter this next chapter together,” Bush wrote on his LinkedIn.
According to Mark Foods’ press release, the acquisition will push the company to over USD 1 billion (EUR 876 million) in annual revenue, as it adds to its portfolio of seafood acquisitions. It most recently acquired Portland, Maine-based Bristol Seafood. At that time, Markman told SeafoodSource that the two companies' complementary cultures and products were a big driver behind that acquisition.
“We service a lot of the same customer base, and we’ve been hearing about how great the Bristol brand is for a long time,” Markman said. “When you look at it, a lot of our customers are similar because they are the customers who want the best products on the market. We have both built our reputation on providing the highest-quality seafood available.”
Mark Foods also acquired frozen seafood distributor Arista Industries in 2023, which at the time pushed the company to USD 800 million (EUR 701 million) in revenue. That acquisition came two years after it acquired Openwater Seafoods in 2021.
