For consumers keen on preparing seafood at home that’s as tasty and flavorful as restaurant fare, SeaPak Shrimp & Seafood Co. has come up with a new line of pub style products made to help get the job done quickly and conveniently.
This October, the St. Simons Island, Georgia-based company is launching a frozen line of SeaPak Pub Style Beer Battered items that will be sold from freezer cases at supermarkets throughout the USA. Two of the three products in the range – SeaPak Pub Style Beer Battered Cod and SeaPak Pub Style Beer Battered Crab Poppers – are brand new. The third offering is the nine-ounce version of its Beer Battered Shrimp, which has been a staple in the portfolio for several years.
“From our research, we know that consumers are looking to duplicate restaurant-style beer-battered seafood at home, which was the basis behind the creation of this line,” said SeaPak Marketing Manager Leslie Harris-Thomas. “These new products capture that elusive, authentic restaurant experience and flavor that families and seafood lovers crave, but until now have had difficulty replicating at home.”
Consumer preference for seafood such as shrimp, crab and cod, combined with the persistent rise in popularity of beer-battered foods, were key drivers behind SeaPak’s latest recipe development. In fact, beer battered is now second only to bread crumbs in terms of value-added flavor enhancements, and there is room for further growth.
SeaPak’s Pub Style Beer Battered Crab Poppers, which are infused with cheese and jalapeño pepper, and Pub Style Beer Battered Cod are the brand’s first steps toward expanding into this high-demand arena.
“Our consumers really enjoy beer-battered fish, so the timing is right to expand the assortment of these products,” said Harris-Thomas. “Annual consumption of our beer-battered shrimp continues to rise year-over-year, indicating the new Pub Style line will be a strong sales driver within the frozen seafood segment overall. The key is to deliver restaurant-style authenticity, which is how these new offerings, made with real beer, will differentiate from other products within the marketplace.”
The Pub Style products are formulated to help SeaPak appeal to two key audiences: people who don’t feel at home in the kitchen and just want quick-and-easy mealtime solutions, and those “confident cooks” on the other end of the spectrum. Both demographic segments have demonstrated a propensity for purchasing frozen seafood, which presents opportunities for SeaPak to address their individual needs.
The new offerings meet strict guidelines for responsible sourcing and sustainability, Harris-Thomas pointed out. SeaPak Pub Style Beer Battered Cod (which come in 12-ounce packages) is made with high-quality, wild-caught cod that is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. The Beer Battered Crab Poppers (distributed in an 11-ounce packs that includes three ounces of citrus tartar sauce) are produced using wild-caught blue swimming crab certified by the National Fisheries Institute’s Crab Council. And the Beer Battered Shrimp (in nine-ounce packs) are tail-on shrimp that are 3-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certified.
SeaPak Pub Style Beer Battered products will initially be available in Kroger and Meijer supermarkets around the United States, as well as Ahold Delhaize supermarkets including Food Lion, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop. Beer Battered Crab Poppers will be available at Walmart locations beginning in January of 2018.
About SeaPak
In business since 1948, SeaPak is a unit of Buffalo, New York-headquartered Rich Products Corporation’s Consumer Brands Division, which includes Farm Rich frozen snacks and appetizers, Coffee Rich non-dairy creamer, Byron’s BBQ, Casa Di Bertacchi Italian meatballs and Carvel Ice Cream Cakes. Rich’s annual sales now exceed $3.7 billion, and the privately held, family-owned company employs more than 10,000 people selling over 4,000 product SKUs in over 100 countries around the world.
