Bantry Bay of America, based in Maryland, has gone from being a supplier of Irish-grown mussels to expanding its operation to Chile for mussel production. It added other seafood offerings under its Next Wave of Bantry label. Gary Werner is the CEO of Bantry Bay of America.
SeafoodSource: Your company has evolved quite a bit since its inception. How has that evolution shaped the business principles on which the company operates?
Werner: Bantry Bay America's business principles have been in place since its inception and align with our parent company, Mascato (in Spain). Our business principles include being the source of products and offering them at a fair price. Our goal is to provide good tasting, easy-to-prepare, innovative, sustainable, value-added seafood.
SeafoodSource: How would you describe Bantry's growth strategy?
Werner: Our growth strategy has centered on developing an "international dining experience." We are making consumers feel like they can now enjoy the cuisine of various countries without ever leaving their home. We are focused on current and new customer development while being the innovator in value-added seafood, answering the needs of our consumers. We utilize data sources to determine trends and develop products answering that need.
Our goal is to ensure the retail community is made aware of these products by utilizing both a direct and a sales agency partnership approach. We are combining this strategy with a marketing approach to ensure our new brand – Next Wave of Bantry – s recognized as the No. 1 brand in value-added seafood.
SeafoodSource: What do you consider to be your biggest business challenge thus far? How did you address it and what did you learn from that experience?
Werner: A challenge was to ensure we could meet demand and develop innovative new products that remained true to our principles of quality and innovation.
With that goal in mind, it was evident that we needed to have the most up-to-date equipment, to offer the highest quality and the best-tasting products. We solved this challenge by buying the best new equipment to produce our state-of-the-art skin pack items.
Another challenge was to ensure we offered the best-tasting and safest quality mussels to our consumers. We achieved that by investing more than USD 1 million (EUR 865,000) in a pier at our plant. This enabled Bantry Bay of America expedient, safe harvesting, and safe unloading of raw material received on a daily basis (during the season).
The first advantage is the mussel crop has less handling. It comes from the farm (the open Chilean sea) directly to the plant. Unloaded directly, the mussels go from boat to hopper truck on our pier and then a short distance to our plant's reception hoppers. Reception hoppers are full of sea water when unloading the product. This process promotes life, mussel quality, reducing breakage and waste.
The second advantage is shorter time from harvest to processing. The shorter time means less dehydration. Mussels lose water after being harvested, and once the mussel is out of the water this dehydration process begins. Last is safety: Harvesting from our boats on our pier makes the different operations safer and more efficient for our workers with fewer manual tasks, more machines and quicker processing.
SeafoodSource: How do you measure or determine success for your business?
Werner: I believe our success is measured by keeping our brand awareness growing each year, which will, in turn, enable us to keep expanding our items being offered to consumers.
SeafoodSource: What impact do you see the Trump administration and its policies related to trade, the environment, etc., having on the seafood industry?
Werner: We believe at this stage it is premature to answer this question. Bantry Bay America and our parent company, Mascato, are committed to providing quality, sustainable product, processed and transported with the highest safety standards in mind, regardless of any policy changes that may occur.
SeafoodSource: What has been the best piece of business advice you've been given and from whom did it come?
Werner: My most valuable advice has come from my parents. They taught me to get a good education, respect everybody, be hard working, fair, and honest. These principles have served me well, both in my business career and in my personal life as well. My service in the military has also taught me some very good values, which have stayed with me my entire life, including my business career.
