Even as a global pandemic raged on around it, Millville, New Jersey-based LaMonica Fine Foods found time to develop a series of new seafood items for both foodservice and retail, while delivering on its existing orders as an essential business, the company announced in June.
Later this year, the company is launching a variety of new breaded seafood offerings for foodservice and retail, a new line of canned gourmet seafood soups, and a line of microwaveable frozen seafood entrees. LaMonica created the new products while serving as an essential business during the COVID-19 crisis, “working to keep grocery store shelves stocked with fresh, frozen, and canned seafood,” it said in a press release.
LaMonica President Daniel LaVecchia and Vice President Michael LaVecchia have been leading LaMonica in establishing and implementing “updated safety precautions in order to lessen chance of exposure of COVID-19 by requiring all individuals to wear a mask while on the property, canceling all ‘in person’ meetings, hourly disinfecting of public surfaces, and enforcing the six-feet social distancing protocols," according to the company. Shifts have also been staggered, and employees who are able to do so have been working from home, the company said.
“It is no secret the world is different than six months ago,” the company said. “Our daily lives are full of precautions that we couldn’t have imagined this time last year; face masks, PPE, hand sanitizers, social distancing, and stay-at-home orders. Back in March, part of the world was seemingly put on pause, all while many people including medical professionals, grocery store workers, and food production never stopped working.”
In February, LaMonica secured a static billboard to promote its retail line of canned seafood products – including sea clams, clam juice, and scungilli – for an eight-week stint. Travelers making their way from New Jersey into Staten Island, New York, via the Outerbridge Crossing were targeted by the 14- by 48-foot billboard, which featured the tagline “Invite Us For Dinner.”
Founded in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923, the supplier originally went by the name of Cape May Foods following the expansion of its fishing business and relocation to Cape May, New Jersey, where the company processed and packed its seafood for retail and foodservice. In 2005, the business changes its name to LaMonica Fine Foods to honor its founder Peter LaMonica. That same year, the company relocated once more to a newer, larger facility in Millville. Founder Peter LaMonica’s grandchildren are now in charge of the business, which operates its own fishing fleet and state-of-the-art packing facility.
Photo courtesy of LaMonica Fine Foods
