SeafoodSource: What are the biggest business challenges for Albion today?
Sollows: With six decades of growth and success in a turbulent West-coast seafood industry we realize in order to sustain that track record we must evolve. Every day we must be prepared to compete in a market that requires consistent value upgrade. Our focus is being best in class at making informed cost & product decisions that create benefit for our customer, supplier and ultimately our team.
SeafoodSource: What business strategies do you have in place to surmount those challenges?
Sollows: Work effectively on providing the market with a tighter, better managed list of products and services, one we have tested and approve as among the best available for quality, culinary value and pricing. We have been processing and distributing seafood in British Columbia for over 50 years to foodservice and retail markets. To ensure continued growth we have invested in emerging automation technology for FRESH portioning & packaging to improve our products’ quality and cost. This has helped us become more efficient, expand shelf life for fresh seafood, reduce shrink/waste, provide value added opportunities to our suppliers and ultimately deliver a more consistent culinary experience to our customer.
SeafoodSource: Looking at the salmon category, what are the top one or two issues facing this sector of the industry and what are some of the solutions you would offer to address those issues?
Sollows: Salmon supply is a consistent issue, be it too much at once, or in the case of wild salmon, too little or no local fish some years. Consumer support for salmon has lagged behind other proteins in many areas of North America due to the swings in supply as well commodity nature of distribution and marketing. This creates great swings in the value of these wild and aquaculture commodities, thus creating high risk if you are not paying attention.
Aquaculture has and will continue to change that trend as salmon from these industries is consistent in supply and the quality profile has reached level where the consumers are driving volume.
We continue to support local west coast wild seine & troll fisheries for a variety of Pacific salmon both fresh and frozen, products that are core to our past and future success. In 2014 we made a commitment to help the first commercial scale land based aquaculture salmon farm to process and market their Kuterra Salmon. This commercial project produces a mild flavor, great quality, high fat fish that is environmentally best in class. Kuterra has been consistently working through the anticipated hurdles of launching a new industry, they have established a solid customer base and are anticipated to be commercially profitable in 2016.
SeafoodSource: If there's one thing you could change about the seafood industry, (as it relates to your ability to run a successful business) what would it be?
Sollows: Reduce waste/improve the yield of our fisheries by being innovative and ensuring whatever we harvest from the ocean or land is not only consumed but is maximized for quality, providing improved health and culinary benefit.
Given the opportunity to address a room filled with seafood industry leaders such as yourself, what is the one nugget of wisdom you would offer them as your closing remark?
Seek constant improvement, not perfection. If your desire is to work in a world that supports companies that make a difference, entice your competition to change not by condemning their practices but by never compromising yours.
SeafoodSource: The difference(s) I want to make personally, in the company or the industry as a whole, is/are ...
Sollows: To continue to evolve the process of adding value to stakeholders in Albion and its partners by creating a model built on improvement. To see the west coast seafood industry turn the corner from one that is in remission to one that is growing again.
