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Blount nears end of Fall River expansion - September 25, 2004Blount Seafood is investing $10 million in Fall River, creating an expanded 60,000-square-foot processing facility in the Fall River Industrial Park and bringing with it 100 new jobs.Construction is ongoing at the facility, where Blount Seafood will move its entire soup and specialty item production line from its current location in Warren. Construction is scheduled to be completed in October, with a grand opening slated for early November, said Todd Blount, company president. “We needed a new building – we’re in Warren on an historic site where we cannot grow easily,” Blount said. “We wanted to be near (Interstate) 195 and we needed to be in an industrial park. Also, the city is very pro-business, and they were very organized in helping us understand the process.” The company purchased an existing 45,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and is finishing a 15,000-square-foot addition for hot and cold storage. The building was previously built for and rented by a wastewater treatment system designer and manufacturer, according to Joe Raposo, director of business development for the Fall River Office of Economic Development. The city of Fall River – Mayor Ed Lambert Jr. is chair of the economic development office board – granted Blount Seafood a 10-year tax incentive under its Tax Increment Financing program that gives the company 50 percent off taxes on the current value of the property for a decade, as well as a 5 percent credit from the state. “We began working with the company and broker a few years back when they started looking at sites,” Raposo said. “Blount has a significant presence in the region, and this is an industry that’s pretty much recession-proof, so it was a great deal.” The new Blount location will handle all of the company’s soup processing, and will also have a research and development culinary center with a kitchen, where restaurant chains and other clients will be able to see their recipes turned into bulk products. The smaller Warren facility, which has operated for 58 years, will continue to operate – Blount Seafood will have dual operations in the Warren and Fall River locations until the new one is fully on-line – but the Rhode Island site will be refocused as a fresh processing plant, Blount said. The factory store there will also stay. Initially, the new Fall River plant will have a work force of 65, including approximately 50 workers from the Warren location and production and other staff, but Blount said he plans to increase that number to 100 during the next two years. Fifty workers will stay at the processing center in Warren, but the jobs lost to Fall River will be replaced in a matter of a few months, he said, and 25 additional people will be hired for the new operations there. “Blount Seafood has a range of positions from production level to management, and they’re good-paying jobs,” Raposo said. “They’re also putting a vacant building back in use and creating more tax revenue for the city. This also speaks to the city’s effort to diversify its industrial base.” Blount Seafood makes 65 different soups, and 25 of them are clam chowders – every client has its own recipe for chowder, Blount said – but the company also makes specialty items for distributors and restaurant chains, “value-added restaurant solutions.” For example, a restaurant may make a fajita sauce for a special dish, but now wants to add it to the regular menu. The restaurant would bring in the recipe and Blount Seafood would then produce it in bulk. In addition to supplying the restaurant industry with its seafood soups, chowders and other products, the Blount Seafood soup line is sold under Shaw’s Supermarkets’ name brand, as well as at Sam’s Clubs as both hot and cold to-go products under its own label. The company also supplies soups to national distributors like Sysco, Campbell Soup Co. and the Olive Garden. “The best thing is that we’re all over the place but no one knows it, and it’s something we’d like to keep a secret,” Blount said. Blount is currently looking for a location in Fall River to open another factory store, where the company would sell products in bulk, and hopes to have a location by January. There are also plans to expand the Fall River processing facility to accommodate a distribution center, but that will happen in the next five years, he said. Established in 1880 and incorporated in 1946, Blount Seafood also has a small production/processing facility in New Bedford and a distribution center in East Providence. Published Providence Business News 09/25/2004 Issue 19-24 |