Phillips Foods, one of the largest U.S. suppliers of crabmeat, has purchased two plants in Canada to process lobster and snow crab as it launches new products.
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.-based Phillips Foods acquired facilities in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to process lobster and crab, Phillips Vice President of Retail Sales and Marketing John Baxter told SeafoodSource.
The facilities include the former South Shore Seafoods plant in Bloomfield, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the former Pêcheries Bas-Caraquet Fisheries plant in Bas-Caraquet, New Brunswick.
The company formed a Canadian subsidiary to purchase South Shore Seafoods out of bankruptcy, reaching an asset purchase agreement between Deloitte Restructuring and new subsidiary it dubbed Phillips Bridge Seafoods.
“Phillips was looking to diversify and grow the overall business,” Baxter told SeafoodSource.
Baxter declined to disclose additional details about the acquisitions.
While the company currently does not plan to manufacture value-added products at either facility, Phillips is launching refrigerated pasteurized lobster meat products for the first time, Baxter said. It is also debuting a frozen crab toast appetizer after several years of success with its shrimp toast appetizer, and will demo both products at Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts, from 10 to 12 March, at booth #2967.
“We are looking forward to creating new excitement with our pasteurized lobster meat in the refrigerated set,” Baxter said. “It is something relatively new to the industry, but we have experience with the pasteurization process, and we will be vertical with our Canadian resources.”
Phillips’ lobster meat will be available to …
