Beaver Street Fisheries revamps product line, doubles down on skin-pack

Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.-based Beaver Street Fisheries will unveil skin pack technology innovations, new packaging for its entire shrimp, scallops, and shellfish lines at the 2023 Seafood Expo North America.

Beaver Street is returning to the expo, taking place 12 to14 March in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are so excited to be returning to the seafood expo,” Beaver Street Director of Marketing Bluzette Carline said. “We‘ve been participating in this show for over 20 years and it’s always one of the highlights of the year for us.”

Carline told SeafoodSource the company made the packaging update to improve the shopability of its products in stores. 

“Our past packaging had been in the market for over 12 years and we felt it time to address consumer needs when shopping for an item like shrimp and the type of on-pack call outs that might help the shopper make an easier choice at the freezer,” she said. “During the pandemic, we took time to assess our product lines and rethink how our packaging could be more consumer friendly.” 

Beaver Street’s team has been working on the revamp of its shrimp line packaging for the past year, Carline said.

“Being one of our largest lines of approximately 50 SKUs, this project took some time,” she said.

Beaver Streets skin-pack offerings vary from frozen and previously frozen, to fresh product – all managed in its own production facility, Carline said. The company recently invested in capacity to increase production within its facility as a means of increasing its skin-pack offerings, she said. 

"We pack our skin-pack offerings under our flagship brand as well as private label,” she said. “The package is the first thing consumers see and this type of packaging gives us the ability to immediately communicate to our customers the premium quality of our products and the care that goes into our delivery of them.”

Beaver Street has invested in its new skin-pack lines by installing control points on an automated line, its director of operations, Lloyd Carter, said in the news release.

“This new technology gives us wider capabilities for fresh and frozen product to be packaged and sold in clear skin-packs,” Carter said.

Beaver Street is just one of may suppliers recognizing the increased retail demand for skin-pack products. Santa Monica Seafood President and CEO told SeafoodSource last year the company was adding facilities to meet growing demand for its skin-pack program for retailers, along with other retail offerings and its foodservice processing services.

“Retailers are drawn to the packaging format for its shelf-life extension properties, labor savings, and presentation versatility. All one must do is look at retailers in the U.K. to see how case-ready, chilled skin-packed seafood dominates with all major retailers,” O’Brien said. "U.S. retailers tend to follow the U.K. retailers, at least relative to seafood packaging, by a few years.”

Since launching its skin-pack seafood program in 2016 in Los Angeles and again in 2018 in Chicago, “we have seen explosive growth and tremendous support from our retail partners for chilled, case-ready seafood,” O’Brien said.

At SENA, Beaver Street will also be showing its new ... 

Photo courtesy of Beaver Street Fisheries