In The News

All the time and hard work has finally paid off: Blount Seafood completed construction on its new, 65,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art corporate headquarter and soup processing facility in Fall River, MA, and celebrated the move with a Grand Opening and Open House on November 9.

While the Fall River plant will produce Blount’s prepared foods such as its growing soup division and value-added product lines, the original plant in Warren, RI, which has been in operation for 58 years, remains open but will focus on shellfish processing. The factory store in Warren also remains open, and a second factory store is in the planning states for Fall River.

According to Todd Blount, company president, the Fall River facility was in a testing phase throughout the month of October, making trial batches and getting customer and regulatory approval, and is now up and running full-time.

The decision to build a new facility was a matter of necessity. “We have been at or close to capacity at the Warren plant for about five years,” says Blount, adding that, because the Warren plant is located in a historic residential area and is right on the water, adding on to the facility was not an option. “In the meantime, we leased space in East Providence and New Bedford, which we will keep for the foreseeable future.”

Blount Seafood’s impressive new 65,000-sq-foot plant, located in the Fall River Industrial Park, was originally a 45,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, which the company expanded to add space for hot and cold storage.

Fall River was chosen largely because of its proximity to Route 195. “All the plants – the Warren plant, the new Fall River plant, and the facilities in East Providence and New Bedford – have access to Route 195,” Blount explains.

One of the new building’s key features is the culinary center, complete with a kitchen where Blount’s research and development team will be able to collaborate with customers’ chefs. While most of the R&D work relates to turning a customer’s recipe into something Blount can manufacture in bulk, new product development will also play an important roll.

“The new facility will be a magnet to encourage local and national restaurants to join us,” commented Blount. “The building itself, with the culinary center, is a big part of our message. We’re trying to attract national chains and food service distributors as well as local guys – no one is too big or too small.  They’re all important.”

Blount Seafood was established in 1880 and incorporated in 1946. The company manufactures 65 different soups, of which 25 are clam chowders. The Blount Seafood soup line is sold under several brand names, as well as through national distributors.

Published Modern Food Service, Empire Food Service and New England Food Service
December 2004