True World Group President Robert Bleu said his sushi-focused seafood company is now on solid financial ground, but that the Covid pandemic nearly forced it out of business.
Bleu told SeafoodSource in March 2020 his company’s orders plunged 80 percent during the depths of the crisis, but said following steep cuts and a normalization of customer behavior following the reopening of the economy in 2022, True World Group is back on track.
The Rockleigh, New Jersey, U.S.A. based company owns True World Foods, the largest fresh fish distributor to high-end and mid-range sushi restaurants in North America, as well as Noble Village Group, which operates sushi restaurants, Japanese patisseries, and Asian small footprint markets, primarily in the U.S. Midwest. It sold subsidiaries International Seafoods of Alaska (ISA), which operated a processing plant in Kodiak, Alaska, to Silver Bay Seafoods in 2020, and Shining Ocean to surimi player Aquamar in December 2021, as well as a number of real estate holdings, in order to streamline its business and recoup cash as the business suffered in the depths of the pandemic.
“We have trimmed down our portfolio and it makes a stronger business, actually,” Bleu told SeafoodSource at the 2023 Global Seafood Market Conference in La Quinta, California, U.S.A. on 17 January. “Some of this stuff we had was not really a good business, and some of it we decided it wasn’t that good a fit in our portfolio. We have significant opportunities in the two silos we have left – sushi restaurant distribution, and then in our retail to consumers. We've got a lot of opportunities there that look brighter than what we saw in those other businesses.
Bleu said letting go of Shining Ocean was a particularly tough blow for him.
“I was the president of Shining Ocean for six years, it was hard for me to do the sale, but it was the right call for us. Now we’re more focused,” Bleu said. “Covid caused plenty of hassles and a lot of grief. And that was very uncomfortable. [Surviving] has not been easy at all. It's been like a cat fight, but we have come through.”
Bleu said he cut workforce expenses by 33 percent in 2020 and reduced the company’s footprint. Those moves included a layoff for his executive assistant and the elimination of his personal office.
“We survived, I think, because we have strong bones and we had real estate equity and different stuff. If we hadn’t had that, our bank might have freaked out, because it was really an ugly picture,” he said. “It was tough for a while, but it turned out sushi has done very well in the last two years.”
Bleu said it took around six months after Covid began hitting hard in the U.S. before he began to feel like sushi sales were recovering enough in the U.S. to make True World’s continued existence more certain.
“Consumers found out sushi was very good for takeout. We started coming back pretty strong and now we have come back a lot,” he said. “We've been blessed that our scale allows us to carry product that maybe other people didn't have, and because we're pretty big so we're probably one of the last [companies that suppliers] would tell they’re not giving us any product.”
Bleu said 2022 sales were up, dipping only in November and December, which were down mid-single digits year-over-year. Economic indicators for the coming year have Bleu “spooked” but he said he’s confident sushi has found a permanent place in the takeout regimes of many Americans.
“Takeout is still a huge piece of the puzzle for many Americans, so I do think sushi is much stronger than most other food categories,” he said. “We may have a really tough recession coming and I believe sushi will do better than most segments, just like through Covid. We produce a really good value and really high quality. We're doing crazy volume. I was looking at the most-searched terms on like the aggregator takeout websites ChowNow and GrubHub, and five of the top 10 are sushi items. It was like sashimi, California roll, maki – those were all in the top 10. I do believe the whole sushi footprint in America is much bigger than pre-Covid and now most customers are trained for it. Takeout is going to remain strong.”
Despite the strong financial base the company now enjoys, Bleu said he still hasn’t hired back his executive assistant, and that True World Group still remains at two-third staffing of what it was pre-Covid – 1,150 employees versus 1,500, according to the company’s LinkedIn page. Bleu said he wants to up his staffing levels but is having trouble finding employees.
“I need more staff, but there's all kinds of categories of people that are really hard to find. Drivers are super tough to locate. Production workers. Baristas, for the other side of the business,” he said. “I frequently call a general manager of one of our locations and they text me back, ‘Mr. Bleu. I'm out delivering fish to the customers, can I finish my deliveries before I call you back?’ And I would say ‘Absolutely, the customer comes first. You’ve got raw fish in there, drop it all off and then call me when you can.’ There have been waves of Covid at different times and a bunch of flu around Christmas, and the general managers are looking around and seeing no one else to drive the truck.”
Bleu said his current workers have stepped up through Covid and the current labor shortage. Privately, he appreciated the bad weather around Christmas that made deliveries impossible, even though it wasn’t good for sales.
“There was that horrible weather but it was okay, because that gave us a break,” he said. “We've got a strong team and the firm has performed through a really tough time. I’ve discovered that’s when you find out who you are, when the going turns rough.”
Photo courtesy of True World Group
