Seattle, Wash.-based Ocean Beauty Seafoods is one of the largest U.S. seafood suppliers, with several packaged consumer brands in U.S. retail outlets as well as an extensive fresh seafood distribution business.
SeafoodSource recently spoke with Tom Sunderland, VP-marketing and communications for Ocean Beauty about the company’s expansion plans and how it plans to move the a volume of Alaska salmon expected this season.
With the high projected salmon run this season, is Ocean Beauty concerned about moving the extra product? Will the anticipated lower price point for Alaska salmon encourage more consumers to buy salmon?
Sunderland: It’s a good thing to have more fish. Having a big run speaks volumes about Alaska’s world-leading seafood-management practices, which should help consumers understand that eating Alaska salmon is not only delicious and healthy, but responsible as well. Strong runs help us meet the expectations of our customers, help our processing plants run more efficiently and help us support our fishing fleet and the Alaska coastal communities who rely on the fish. We always try to meet our goals through diversification. We will target the fresh market, using our logistics network that runs directly from Alaska to the end user. We’ll also expand frozen products and smoked salmon. If prices are lower, then we hope that provides the incentives existing consumers need to expand their consumption and encourages lapsed or new users to try Alaska salmon in the first place.
How is Ocean Beauty expanding its commodities distribution business?
As it became a more difficult export market with the value of the dollar versus other currencies, we are really well-positioned with our domestic distribution and logistics network to move a lot of our product in the U.S. Not everybody has that ability to move that product directly to the best market in the U.S. We run our own trucks from our distribution centers in Seattle; Portland; Astoria, Ore.; Boise, Idaho; Helena, Mont.; Salt Lake City and Dallas. Between those facilities we are running 80 trucks, six days a week to restaurant chains and retailers all over the western U.S. For those markets where we don’t have our own trucks, Ocean Beauty operates a direct-ship program, through which we overnight fresh fish to restaurants and retailers across the U.S.
How is Ocean Beauty expanding its production capability?
Because of increased demand, we have been undergoing a major expansion of our plant in Cordova, and we have been expanding our freezing capacity in Alaska. We also bought some more property next to our Cordova facility for this expansion. We also produce salmon oil in some of our plants, adding a different value-added capability in a pretty big way. Recently, we expanded our smoked salmon operation in Seattle, and have expanded and modernized our main smoking operation in Monroe, Wash.
Is Ocean Beauty adding new seafood products in U.S. supermarkets?
Our Echo Falls Hot Smoked Salmon Trio just launched and will be in national supermarket retailers this year. It includes three, 4-ounce portions of sockeye salmon in Cajun, Traditional and Pepper flavors. We are also launching Echo Falls Hot Smoked Sockeye Candy Strips that will be available in both bulk and packaged forms. This summer, we will launch one-pound retail bags of frozen flounder under the Ocean Beauty brand. We already provide the one-pound bags in cod, tilapia and pink salmon. Flounder, also known as sole, is a great-eating, somewhat underutilized fish and is a great value. Everybody knows sole from eating it in restaurants, so we are trying to take advantage of that.
