Reykjavik, Iceland-based Niceland Seafood has introduced its first frozen products – two-pound bags of wild-caught Icelandic haddock and cod.
The products are “already on their way” to the U.S., according to Danielle Davis, Niceland’s director of marketing and partnerships, who is based out of Niceland’s U.S. headquarters in Denver, Colorado.
Development of Niceland’s first frozen offerings was underway before COVID-19 reached pandemic status, Davis said, but production was accelerated in March. Davis said that was because the company was responding to rapidly changing consumer buying trends as Americans increasingly began to favor frozen seafood over fresh, with even Americans who previously, rarely, or never purchased frozen foods pre-pandemic began to try them out, according to a survey performed by the Frozen Foods Institute and research firm 210 Analytics.
“The goal is to fill the frozen aisle with beautifully-packaged, quality fish products that have a story of full transparency backing them up,” Davis told SeafoodSource. “People just aren’t getting that now. There are moms wanting to feed their families with nutritious seafood, and they’re dealing with confusing, sometimes mislabeled products, and in general products that look really unappealing, so we know we have a huge opportunity here and we’re moving aggressively in response.”
The introduction of frozen products is part of a larger plan from Niceland to expand from its base of supplying fresh seafood from Iceland to the U.S. market. Its owners, Niceland Seafood’s founder, Oliver Luckett, along with fellow founding partner and company CEO, Heida Helgadottir, are currently fundraising to build out a new services company called DigiFresh.
“DigiFresh will modernize the seafood supply chain and offer seafood producers and retailers opportunities to better present and merchandise products to appeal to shoppers, both online and at grocery,” according to Luckett. The company will also offer a new fresh seafood counter design – what it’s calling the “seafood counter of the future” - to retailers that incorporates technology and systemized marketing tools.
“We want to upgrade the customer experience they’re having with seafood. Whether at the fresh counter or through our frozen and other packaged products, we want people to be able to give shoppers what they need to feel confident in purchasing seafood more often,” Luckett told SeafoodSource. “I don’t know if, as a whole industry, we have given shoppers what they need and want to see in terms of assurances of a product’s safety and natural goodness, and that’s what we’re working on changing at Niceland and DigiFresh.”
Luckett said his company is already thinking about next steps, including the introduction of Niceland-branded frozen Arctic char and value-added products like four-ounce portions of cod specifically designed for cooking in an air-fryer, a new kitchen implement that cooks food via the rapid circulation of hot air.
“I love value-added products that get consumers intrigued,” Luckett said. “In the case of developing products for the air-fryer, this is easy because it’s already being done in every other food segment.”
Davis said Niceland remains committed to its core business of supplying fresh seafood to the foodservice sector, and is doing what it can to help its wholesale and restaurant partners navigate reopening. She also believes there’s an opportunity for frozen in foodservice.
“A lot of our business is foodservice, so of course we, like everyone else, have been impacted by the shutdown of that portion of our economy, and it’s just been devasting to watch how blindsided we’ve all been,” Davis said. “Luckily, we also do have our fresh counter retail business, which has helped us, but certainly it’s been a weird time – we’ve had some really big orders placed and also reduced orders as retailers have moved staff to the center of stores to refill shelves to meet the surge in demand for basic household staples.”
But Luckett said he felt like the company was “now at a place where we have to change.”
“We have never sought to be in the commodity product business,” he said. “We’re building unique, quality products and shopping experiences that are fit for the modern American consumer in a post COVID-19 world.”
Photo courtesy of Niceland Seafood
