Rancho Dominguez, California, U.S.A.-based Santa Monica Seafood is expanding its headquarters, coinciding with an expected USD 60 million (EUR 52 million) in new sales this year.
The seafood distributor is investing USD 4.4 million (EUR 3.8 million) in the buildout at its Rancho Dominguez facility, which serves as its corporate headquarters and its main receiving, processing, and distribution center in Southern California.
“Santa Monica Seafood is projected to add about USD 60 million in new sales this year, and in connection with recently acquired new business and anticipated awards from prospecting efforts in process, our Rancho Dominguez facility needs the additional warehouse, storage, and operational space to accommodate this business,” Santa Monica Seafood President and CEO Roger O’Brien told SeafoodSource.
Krusinski Construction Company, the company’s general contractor, has begun with partial demolition of the existing 120,000-square-foot facility to accommodate a revitalized 9,000 square feet of warehouse space, aiming to support the growth and expansion of the company’s packaging, box-making, storage, and distribution area.
Within the warehouse space, a new 4,000-square-foot temperature-controlled cooler will be installed, including packaging lines, ambient rooms, and high-performance refrigeration equipment with insulated doors, Krusinski said in a release.
The work also includes remodeling and reconfiguration of existing cold kitchen and test kitchen areas to expand dry storage capacities; relocation of all computer data servers, wiring, and related equipment; relocating lobster tanks and related equipment; relocation of its two box-making equipment lines; relocation, renovation, and new furniture and conference technology for its main corporate conference room and its customer service department; and renovation, new furniture, and relocation of its receiving and purchasing departments, per O’Brien.
The revamped facility is set to be fully operational by October.
The sales increase comes even as a new round of U.S. tariffs have left import firms like Santa Monica Seafood with few options to avoid rising costs.
O’Brien recently said the U.S.’s new Section 301 tariffs will operate as “a direct cost shock to a supply chain that is already highly optimized and margin-constrained” by competitive pricing dynamics in retail and foodservice markets.
“Tariffs applied broadly across major supplying countries will not shift sourcing to domestic production; instead, they will reduce supply availability and increase price volatility,” he said. “The inability to fully pass through higher costs to customers will force margin absorption, inventory contraction, or both. This dynamic directly threatens the financial viability of U.S. businesses operating throughout the seafood supply chain and places American jobs at risk.”
