San Diego, California, U.S.A.-based Catalina Offshore Products has been sold to Beish Holdings, a new company founded by local fishmongers Kathy and Dave Strangman and cattle rancher Jose Chacon.
Dave Rudie, who founded the company in the 1970s, has sold the company in order to retire, according to a press release.
“I’ve worked many years to build Catalina Offshore Products into the strong, successful, and revered company it is today and am looking forward to the next chapter of my life,” Rudie said. “In considering Catalina’s future without me, the goal has been to sell to a like-minded, industry-experienced successor who will continue my company’s legacy and build upon its stellar reputation.”
Catalina Offshore Products began as a specialist wholesaler of sea urchin, selling to domestic and Asian customers. It has branched out over the years and is now one of the largest buyers of local seafood in San Diego, with a wholesale division, online story, and bricks-and-mortar market. In 2018, the company received a Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant of USD 139,700 (EUR 122,500) to grow demand for opah and other underutilized and undervalued fish species, such as the chocolate clams and blood clams it began selling in 2014.
Beish, a combination of the words beef and fish, will be managed by Chacon and Brittany and Tanner Strangman, the children of Kathy and Dave Strangman, the owners of San Diego Seafood,
“Opportunities like this are truly once in a lifetime and after meeting with Dave Rudie, we knew we were made for this,” Brittany Strangman said. “Between my family’s combined 80 years in the seafood industry and Jose’s experience in the beef industry, we’re excited to join forces, build upon what has made Catalina the incredible company it is today, and carry Dave’s legacy well into the future.”
Brittany Strangman said she and her brother “look forward to continuing Rudie’s legacy while leveraging new growth opportunities,” including obtaining a liquor license and opening a food truck, as well as adding beef for sale from Chacon’s farm in Mexico.
Rudie said he will remain involved in the seafood industry in some capacity following the sale.
“I’m retiring from my day-to-day business, not from the industry,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Catalina Offshore Products
