Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A.-based Peter Pan Seafood has brought Michael De Caro aboard as its new vice president of retail sales and product development.
De Caro, who trained as a chef before working as a seafood supplier in Seattle, Washington, is moving to Peter Pan from Eastern Fish Company. De Caro “will lead the team developing new retail items and portion control, playing an important role as the company produces more value-added products this year,” Peter Pan said in a press release.
Since coming under new ownership at the beginning of this year, a core focus for Peter Pan has been to “produce extraordinary products that delight and satisfy, with an emphasis on quality standards and a commitment to excellence that is second to none,” according to the firm. De Caro’s appointment will help the company satisfy this core commitment, it said.
“Michael has so much knowledge, from flatfish to octopus and everything in between,” Peter Pan Vice President of Operations Jon Hickman said. “He is a great addition to our current knowledge base, and he will help us utilize the resource and produce more value-added products here at home.”
For De Caro, Peter Pan’s ambition to grow was a draw.
“Peter Pan is not afraid to be unconventional. That’s part of what was so attractive to me,” De Caro said. “Seafood is an old industry, and there is a lot of stagnation. Processors put out the same product day after day. Peter Pan is looking to push things further and take the industry to the next level.”
De Caro and Peter Pan will be looking to produce more value-added products domestically, “rather than exporting the resource overseas for processing,” they said.
“This will allow Peter Pan to be responsive to the market and what its customers are looking for, and, with less back and forth between multiple facilities, they will have great traceability of the product,” the company said.
Peter Pan said it’s made “several commitments, to its employees, fleet, and customers” with its new owners at the helm. The company is already making progress with some of those promises, it said.
“For the fleet, the company recently posted a base price for sockeye salmon out of Bristol Bay – before fishing even started to heat up for the season; and it paid some of the highest prices in recent memory for king salmon out of the Copper River Flats at USD 20.00 [EUR 16.00] per pound during the opener. For employees, company leadership is visiting each facility to meet with employees and develop plans that support staff. De Caro will be on the team checking these boxes for customers, by going the extra mile and delivering innovative, value-added products,” Peter Pan said.
On 19 June, the company announced that it would pay a base price of USD 1.10 (EUR 0.84) per pound for sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The development, which came earlier than expected, is a welcome one for the region’s fishermen after last season’s base price of USD 0.75 (EUR 0.63).
“The early price is offered to intentionally put the fleet at ease that they will receive a fair price for the long hours and hard work they are about to endure participating in the world’s largest sockeye fishery. Moreover, Peter Pan hopes the surprise early announcement, with a significant bump over 2020, helps fishermen and their families plan their finances for the year in this great time of uncertainty,” Peter Pan said in a press release last week.
Photo courtesy of Peter Pan Seafood
