seafood company's Warren plant.
The recipe for Blount Seafood Corp.’s successful diversification strategy goes something like this: Mix lobster bisque and other gourmet soups with specialty items like crab cakes. Stir in the traditional clam-processing business. Add a dash of retail.
The Warren company’s announcement last month that it will pour $10 million into a new production facility in Fall River marks a milestone in its transformation from a clam processor to a maker of prepared seafood items for restaurants.
The 60,000-square-foot facility in Fall River will provide production and cold-storage space exclusively for Blount’s line of soups, chowders and specialty items like breaded scallops and crab cakes.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
It also will house its burgeoning research-and-development operation, where in-house chefs tinker with new concoctions – both Blount’s own creations and custom requests from restaurants. The company now boasts more than 100 soup recipes.
And the new facility will enable the 200-employee company to launch brand-name retail products for the first time. This month, 600 Wal-Mart supercenters nationwide will begin carrying individual cups of Blount brand soup, according to Todd Blount, the third-generation president of Blount Seafood.
From its founding in 1946 through the mid-1970s, Blount’s only customer was Campbell Soup Co. But the growth of Blount’s soup lines stems from a diversification strategy conceived more than two decades ago by Ted Blount, the previous president who remains the company’s chairman.
The goal: to shift focus away from clam processing, which over the years had become essentially a commodity business.
Blount Seafood acquired Great Soups Inc. of Bristol in 2000. Since then, soup has come to represent 40 percent of the company’s $45 million annual revenue. It makes nearly 50,000 pounds of soup a day, everything from traditional New England clam chowder and lobster bisque to non-seafood recipes such as chicken tortilla and carrot ginger.
“It’s been a long strategy that took more than 20 years to come to fruition and drive the business,” Todd Blount said. “Now our newer, value-added products support our other business.”
That other business is processing clams, most of which Blount gets from New Jersey and New York, and most of which still are supplied to Campbell. Processing still accounts for 40 percent of revenues, although it has been eclipsed by the remaining 60 percent: soups and sauces, prepared items such as shrimp dip and imported specialty seafood such as New Zealand littleneck clams.
Blount sells its soups and other prepared foods both to local restaurants and national chains, as well as food-service wholesalers such as Sysco Corp. But since they use their own labels, you won’t find the Blount name on the menu of your favorite restaurant or market.
“We fly under the radar as far as the consumer is concerned,” Todd Blount said. “But if you’ve had a great lobster bisque at a restaurant, chances are it was ours.”
That could change with the next stage of Blount’s strategy: targeting retailers. Last year it began supplying Shaw’s Supermarket with private-label seafood items, and Todd Blount says the company would like to penetrate the grocery segment even more.
“We’re just now beginning to develop our branded look and strategy, but the first step is to give grocery stores the opportunity to use our restaurant formulas,” he said. In addition to Shaw’s, Blount now sells to Sam’s Club, Costco and a gourmet supermarket chain in New Jersey.
Blount Seafood recently began retrofitting an existing 45,000-square-foot building in the Fall River Industrial Park, and will build a 15,000-square-foot addition. The project should be completed by early next year. The company hopes to staff 100 employees at the facility during peak hours.
It also has a production facility in New Bedford and a distribution center in East Providence, in addition to its headquarters on Water Street in Warren. The Blount Factory Store, a small soup shop, opened on Water Street in 2001. It’s the only place you can find brand-name Blount soups, Todd Blount said.
“We opened that just to keep the phone from ringing,” he said.
For the complete current issue, visit our subscription Web site, or call (401) 273-2201, ext. 227 or 234.
