PBN Innovative Companies 2022
FOOD, BEVERAGE & AGRICULTURE: Blount Fine Foods Corp.
BLOUNT FINE FOODS CORP.’S products are sold on a national scale, but the company had to look no further than Warren for the idea behind its new Clam Shack line of seafood soups.
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Inspired by the success of its seafood restaurant on the Warren waterfront and the innovative small-batch food products produced nearby at the Hope & Main food incubator, the company in 2018 developed a small-batch product that could be sold through local markets: ready-to-serve seafood soups.
“We followed the same path as a small entrepreneur,” CEO and President Todd Blount said. “And we delivered all the soups to local markets ourselves.”
Based on the soups’ success in Rhode Island and an increased demand for prepared foods due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Blount last year went national with the concept. The company has shrunk its standard 4-pound bagged soup product designed for business-to-business usage at hot food bars and restaurants down to a family-friendly 30-ounce size.
The bagged soups, such as New England clam chowder, lobster bisque, shrimp and corn chowder, and seafood gumbo, are packaged for retail in paper cups that look like takeout containers.
“Instead of just using plastic, we wanted this product to look more homemade and also simple,” said Blount, whose family started the business as an oyster harvesting company in 1880. “Now, we can’t directly fill a paper cup because after a week, it might weaken and then collapse. So, that’s why there’s a bag in there.”
Blount also developed a method to blast-freeze the soups, which opened up additional sales opportunities – they can be sold frozen or fresh. The once-local line is currently available at brick-and-mortar retailers throughout the country, as well as through the e-commerce meal company Hello Fresh.
The New England clam chowder is the company’s bestseller. But, to Blount’s surprise, the seafood gumbo soup the company created at the request of Texas-based grocery chain HEB has emerged as the company’s “most-complimented” soup.
“That’s been a little bonus,” he said.
