Shaw’s Southern Belle rebrands to Shaw Family Seafood

Shaw’s Southern Belle Frozen Foods has transformed into Shaw Family Seafood Company.

A 90-year-old Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.-based seafood company is changing its name to better reflect the company’s family history.

Shaw’s Southern Belle Frozen Foods has transformed into Shaw Family Seafood Company and will debut the new look and its suite of products at Booth #1513 at Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts, 13 to 15 March.

Shaw Family Seafood describes itself as one of the largest co-brand and co-packer of frozen custom seafood products in the United States. Its current retail products include Low Country Style Shrimp Boil in a Steam Bag and Peel & Eat Shrimp in a Steam Bag, Crab Cakes, Lobster Cakes, Lobster Mac and Cheese, Grouper Burgers, and Stuffed Natural Crab Shells. Shaw’s restaurant offerings include Mama Shaw Conch Fritters and Seafood Stuffing

Captain H.W. Shaw and his wife, Flossie Russell; their son, John Russell; and his wife, Pheenix (known as Mama Shaw) founded the company in the early 1900s. The family started processing crab in Apalachicola, Florida, and relocated Florida’s first crab processing plant to Jacksonville in 1934. When John Russell died in 1977, Mama Shaw took over as chairman of the board and created many of the family’s recipes.

“After all these years, we needed to insert and focus more on the family name,” CEO Howard Shaw, grandson and namesake of H.W. Shaw, said in a press release. “The Shaw name is how people know us, and we are truly a family business in how we treat everyone we work with.”

The fourth generation of the Shaw family is now making their impact on the business, as Howard (Bubba) Shaw, Jr. and John R. Shaw III lead the sales department. Shaw Family Seafood Vice President John R. Shaw Jr. said the name change will better highlight the supplier’s “family treatment” philosophy.

“Being a family and treating our customers, employees, and providers like family has always been part of our business. It’s what makes us special, and we wanted to move it more central to what our name communicates about us,” Shaw Jr. said.

Shaw Family Seafood will “always deliver for our customers the best pricing, the most-innovative solutions and great tasting food, and we will always run our business from the perspective of everyone being part of our family,” he said.

Increased consumer demand for seafood due to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in “up to 40 percent increases” on its retail products over the past year, New Business Development Director John Shaw III told SeafoodSource.

In addition to heightened retail demand, “restaurants are coming back finally and we see good things on the horizon,” Shaw III said.

To handle increased demand, Shaw is making capital investments.

“We are adding systems to be able to produce more efficiently and have even higher volume potential,” Shaw III said. The supplier is also expanding its steam bags, entree, and crab cake offerings this year, and is phasing out older equipment, he said.

Shaw is also reviewing its current products “to see if we can clean up ingredient labels, make healthier options, portion sizes, and ensure sustainable fisheries are being sourced from,” Shaw III said.

Shaw III said the business has made a big impact in the Jacksonville community, creating thousands of jobs over the years. Many of the company’s current employees have been with the company for more than 25 years.

Photo courtesy of Shaw Family Seafood Company

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