Blount Fine Foods Corp. has a big appetite for increased business

PBN MANUFACTURING AWARDS 2020 | Overall Excellence, more than 500 employees: Blount Fine Foods Corp.


BACK IN 1943, Warren-based entrepreneur F. Nelson Blount was ready for anything. He had to be.

Blount was running an oyster-supply company when oysters and coveted blue-hued bay quahogs were as scarce as the qualified laborers needed to harvest them – most of them off fighting a war.

Thanks to providence, innovation and enterprise, the Blount Fine Foods Corp. founder harnessed challenges he faced to build two dying industries into a dynasty serving Fortune 500 Campbell Soup Co. for 64 years and making him a millionaire by age 30.

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Now, Blount’s grandson, CEO and President Todd Blount, is turning problem to product to pay dirt in leading the company that shucked staple shellfish-processing operations in 2011 for greener profits in the emerging fresh-prepared food market.

“The clam business was something you couldn’t grow,” Blount said. “And we had a high appetite for growth.”

The 1,500-employee, privately held, family-run company still does.

Riding recent rising tides of sector growth, Blount’s gross revenues have swelled.

The company grossed $432.4 million for the 2019 fiscal year, $71.6 million more than in the previous fiscal year and $198.7 million more than in the 2015 fiscal year.

Blount’s growth for 2020 may be impacted slightly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the company still has a positive outlook for the long term.

During the latest soup season – October through February – Blount’s Fall River headquarters and Warren chowder plant manufactured 1 million pounds of soups daily, said General Manager Larry Wysong.

When the newly acquired Portland, Ore., operations begin crafting artisan soups such as broccoli-cheddar, increased volumes are predicted.

“Cooking here is quite different than cooking in your house – you put ingredients in by the barrel,” Wysong said.

Blount also makes gourmet soups, sauces, sides and entrees for its own organic line, museum cafes, sports stadiums and restaurants large and small. Last year it launched Clam Shack Chowder in Rhode Island, and it’s spreading across the U.S.

“We’d made it nationally – we had a 65% market share,” Blount said. “But locally, we weren’t well-represented. We want to be famous in our backyard, like Autocrat or Del’s [Lemonade], and have Clam Shack as Rhode Island’s favorite clam chowder.”

Investing $20 million in new equipment and fine-tuning its list of partners specializing in the world of refrigeration last year has helped position Blount for new growth.

But challenges remain. Low unemployment makes it hard to catch and keep quality employees. Stringent food and safety standards require employees to follow precise processes and protocols, and soups’ seasonality makes stability elusive in many areas, including employee retention.

In late winter, before the pandemic hit, Blount shared plans to prepare employees with training during down months – generally, March through June – to improve mac-and-cheese production this summer.

“We’re working on keeping performance levels high for our people throughout the slow season,” Wysong said. “If we’re only working three days, we’ll hold training the fourth day to be ready for the busy season.”

Whether tracking America’s ever-changing tastes, testing flavor trends, streamlining procedures, or exploring new products, resulting innovations are part of Blount’s history and contribute up to 25% of the company’s future growth.

With the company’s 75th anniversary approaching next year, Blount’s Aug. 16, 1996, message for the 50th anniversary, and recounted in “From Sea to Soup: The evolution of Blount Fine Foods, est. 1946,” seems as fitting now as then:

“It is impossible to know exactly what we will be doing for the next 50 years,” the book’s foreword quotes.

“I do not know if we will be processing clams or Cocoa Krispies,” Blount said. “Thus, my vision for Blount is not knowing ‘what we will do,’ but rather ‘how we will do it.’ Not ‘what products’ and in ‘what place,’ but rather how we react to the market, carry out our relationships and manage quality.”


COVID-19 UPDATE

Initially, Blount Fine Foods Corp. busily fed surging grocery-store orders because of the ­COVID-19 pandemic. But with restaurants closing and hot-to-go orders declining, overall soup orders plunged.

Decreased sales, combined with extra costs for COVID-19-related supplies and needing to create separation at three production facilities, prompted Blount to temporarily furlough 15% of its employees, have nonproduction employees work from home and forgo spring training for those remaining on-site.

Regarding safety, Blount followed U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, raising already high cleanliness and sanitation standards, restricting access to facilities and modifying production schedules. For example, bag employees were moved over to the cup lines as needed.

Blount leveraged community partnerships to donate truckloads of fresh soup that otherwise would have languished to help feed the elderly, veterans and others in need at food banks, soup kitchens and pop-up drive-thrus at schools. Blount also offered discounted soup sales Saturday mornings in May outside its Fall River store.