©2012, 2015 Blount Fine Foods Fall River, Massachusetts Durr, Kenneth Thomas, William

From Sea to Soup: The Evolution of Blount Fine Foods

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011939620

Table of Contents

FOREWORD III

CHAPTER ONE: LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE 1

CHAPTER TWO: A PART OF THE FAMILY 13

CHAPTER THREE: FROM FLOOR TO CEILING 27

CHAPTER FOUR: OUTSIDE THE BOX 41

CHAPTER FIVE: A WINNING STRATEGY 53

CHAPTER SIX: CONSTANT INNOVATION 65

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS I

Foreword

By (Todd) F. Nelson Blount II Standing at the end of a timeline looking back is a unique place to be. The old stories now turned legends appear like clips from a great movie where the “good guys” always win and the hard-working are always rewarded. The question is: can we provide that opportunity in the future? In the year 2000 I became president of Blount Fine Foods. It is a great honor and awesome opportunity to lead this company into the future. As the fifth-generation leader, I started with a great company: a resource of assets, an impeccable reputation, and a going-forward business model. Most important is the team that has continued forward—and this is our connection to the past. Each employee has worked with someone who has been there longer, and with five degrees of separation, we can claim that our team has been together for more than 120 years. Blount Fine Foods has provided a lifetime of opportunity for thousands of people over those years, and I am committed to providing thousands of opportunities in the future. However, the world has changed. Strategies that once lived on for decades now last just a few years. The competitive environment rewards those who are growing and takes away from those who are stagnant. On August 16, 1996, I was privileged to make a speech at our 50th anniversary party. At the event I remarked: “It is impossible to know exactly what we will be doing for the next 50 years. I do not know if we will be processing clams or Cocoa Krispies. Thus, my vision for Blount is not knowing ‘What we will do’ but rather ‘How we will do it’! Not ‘what products’ and ‘in what place,’ but rather, how we react to the market, carry out our relationships, and manage quality. In short, our performance will be defined by how well we manage change. We cannot be afraid of change—we must embrace it and be change agents.” This book is written as a tribute to those who came before us. We hope you enjoy it and learn something from it. I know I have! I am confident in where we are going but realize that I am not completely in control, and I am not alone. I thank all of you, all of our stakeholders, and most importantly God, who alone knows the end of the story!

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:6

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS III A SELF-CONFIDENT F. NELSON BLOUNT AT HIS DESK DURING THE 1940S.

IV Chapter One: Lightning Strikes Twice

Nelson Blount was ready for anything. In the THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE summer of 1943, the self-assured twenty-five- Nelson Blount was born into a culture based year-old had sunk everything into a new seafood on marine life and into a shell fishing family. nbusiness with only a general idea of what it would At the estuary of the upper Narragansett, produce. The supply of oysters was running freshwater currents mingled with ocean tides; very low. Clams, what Rhode Islanders called microorganisms flourished and nourished acres “quahogs,” might have been an option, but they of bivalves just below the bay’s hard bottom. were also scarce since most shell fishermen had Some of the first to harvest them were Long gone to war. Then Blount’s uncle, Rhode Island Island oystermen Jonas and Buell Buckingham, fish and game commissioner Harold Gibbs, who moved to Drowneville, the present day came to dinner. West Barrington section of Barrington, Rhode Island, after the Civil War. In 1880 Jonas’s More hopeful than desperate, Nelson son-in-law, Eddie B. Blount, started his own explained the situation. Gibbs told him company there. Twenty-three years later he about a newly discovered “tremendous bed set up nearby on the east bank of the Warren of clams out in the ocean.” True, they were River, where the harbor was deeper. in deep water on the Atlantic shelf, but a few men could take a good supply with a In the century and a half since its founding, dredge. On deck the next day as Gibbs pulled Warren, Rhode Island, had been a whaling up another catch, Blount was crestfallen. port, a shipbuilding center, a textile town, These were not the blue-hued “bay quahogs” and the oyster capital of New England. Oyster that Rhode Islanders preferred—they were beds were planted and tended much like black “ocean quahogs.” “I’m not sure if farmland, and in the early twentieth century they’re marketable,” Blount admitted, more than 20,000 acres were being cultivated “but I’m going to see what I can do.” in Narragansett Bay. One of Eddie B. Blount’s sons took to the business. The good-natured This discovery was electrifying news for a small “Captain” Byron Blount took over in 1923. His cadre of seafood devotees. It was a stroke of luck brother Willis was a bit chillier in disposition. for the Narragansett Oyster Company, which Perhaps appropriately, he started an ice would soon link the ocean beds with mainland business, building a large plant in Barrington markets. Nelson Blount never made much of this just before the Great Depression. lucky break—he just assumed that things would go his way. In fact, he always seemed to expect that lightning would strike twice.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 1 Willis E. Blount and family pose in front of the newly built ice Teenager Nelson Blount (right) with his best friend Fred Richardson. house in the late 1920s. From left, Luther, Willis, Nelson and Ruth Blount.

Willis Blount’s second son, Francis Nelson Blount, days supplying them with ice. When Willis was born in 1918. He was big-boned, had brown refused to share the profits, Nelson felt no hair that tended to be tousled, and could flash a obligation to stay. broad, ingratiating smile. When Nelson was very young, his mother was injured. Sent away to live THE APPROVED LIST for two years with spinster aunts, Nelson learned On his own in the fall of 1942, Nelson independence early. The rest of his childhood went with what he knew. He bought a truck was spent at home in Warren, a block from the and, with his Uncle Byron’s help, found an New Haven Railroad yards. He grew to love the oyster firm in need of a shipper. He began railroads and acquired the restless nature that making deliveries to the same Army bases some boys get from listening to train whistles in the that had bought Willis Blount’s ice, and soon night. From a securely middle-class family, Nelson “F. Nelson Blount Distribution” employed 28 might have gone to college, but he was too eager drivers. But Nelson was again discontented; for achievement to settle into studies. After high within a year he quit the trucking business to school he went to work in his father’s ice business, go into production. slinging one hundred pound blocks with steel tongs and making deliveries by truck. In early 1943 the Narragansett Oyster Company went up for sale. Its chief asset was a building In the early 1940s the nation mobilized for war, erected on the Warren waterfront 101 years before. but Nelson remained behind, exempted by a It had been renovated and refitted just before the childhood illness. And he did not long remain 1938 hurricane that crippled the ailing industry content in his father’s employ. As nearby Army and put the company into receivership. In the camps expanded, Nelson worked ever longer

2 THE GREAT NEW ENGLAND HURRICANE The hurricane of 1938 dealt a knockout blow to New England businesses already reeling from the Great Depression. No one had seen it coming. Storms tracking north usually veered out to sea, but this one was different. In the afternoon of September 21, 1938, the hurricane cut directly across Long Island and slammed into Rhode Island as a category III storm, its forty-foot wall of water toppling lighthouses and obliterating coastal villages. The storm struck at high tide, and as the surge came in Narragansett Bay rose some sixteen feet, the storm scour destroying nearly all of the state’s oyster beds. Hundreds of Rhode Islanders lost their lives. For H. J. Lewis, the Connecticut firm that owned the Narragansett Oyster Company, it was the end. For Nelson Blount, who bought the plant at a bargain price, it was the beginning.

summer of 1943 Nelson bought Narragansett bay floor. Now, most able-bodied shell fishermen Oyster and painted the building dark green. Only were off at war. Nelson, as it turned out, had then did he think much about what to do with it. staked everything on two dying industries. Then Harold Gibbs’s revelation changed everything. Nelson conferred with Uncle Byron, but the problem seemed insoluble. It was one thing to To clam fanciers who appreciated their strong deliver oysters—it was another to expand the taste, the ocean quahog, species Arctica supply. The combined effects of pollution and islandica, was a legend. A few would occasionally hurricane had left the oyster supply at about 20 wash ashore in a storm, but no one had ever percent of its former capacity: the bay was tapped located the bed. Gibbs found not one, but out. Were clams an alternative? They were thirteen of them in Atlantic waters off Point certainly prized by Rhode Islanders who knew Judith, Rhode Island. Nelson’s challenge them by the Indian-derived name pronounced was to find a market for them beyond a few “ko-hogs,” but they were also in short supply. odd devotees. Again he went with what he Bay quahogs, the species Mercenaria mercenaria, knew—back to the military bases. were typically harvested by “tongers” or “bull rakers” who painstakingly pried them from the

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 3 The quartermaster at Camp Edwards put it bluntly. Ocean quahogs might be palatable, even preferable, in soups or stews, but he could not buy them—they were not on the Army’s “approved list.” Nelson and Byron hastened to Washington. According to Byron, the appropriate strings were pulled by a Warren native who was a long-time assistant to Rhode Island Senator Theodore Green. Nelson recalled telling the senator himself that “you can do a lot to help the shellfish business back to health if you will get the Army to give a good look at our quahogs.” Within six weeks, ocean quahogs made the War Department’s approved list. Nelson Blount was now astride a booming business. With scarce steel allocated to his suddenly essential facility, Nelson began converting the Narragansett Oyster Company for clam production. “We had to develop a lot of new machinery that was one of a kind,” Nelson recalled. As military orders piled up, Narragansett Oyster ran full bore. The production cycle Senator Theodore F. Green (seated) in began at dusk as shell fishermen landed burlap 1938. The powerful politician brought FDR’s New Deal to Rhode Island bags full of quahogs—a day’s catch could reach and put ocean quahogs on the War 250 tons—on the docks at Point Judith. They Department’s “approved list.” were trucked to Warren where hastily hired employees unloaded, cleaned, shucked, and Camp Edwards, which grew cut the clams into strips suitable for chowder. phenomenally during the early 1940s, was one of the largest customers for Now in cans, the quahogs went back across Nelson’s early enterprises: W.E. Blount the loading dock, bound for New England’s Ice, F. Nelson Blount Distribution, and the military bases. Narragansett Oyster averaged Narragansett Bay Packing Company. 100 employees during the war, although at

4 The trucks and trailers of Narragansett Packing and E. B. Blount Sons, parked behind Nelson Blount’s newly acquired plant, not yet painted green.

times Nelson had 125 shuckers working the But reconversion did not work out as Nelson clam line alone. had hoped. Supply problems led to some light shipments that cost the company $22,500 This kind of growth might have preoccupied most to repurchase. Demobilization of the camps businessmen, but Nelson was soon distracted. brought drastic cutbacks at Warren. Worst of Marcus Urann was a lawyer, the inventor of all, ocean quahogs were not as welcomed in cranberry sauce, and founder of the cooperative family kitchens as they had been in military that came to be called “Ocean Spray.” He was chow lines. The tongers and bull rakers were much Nelson’s senior but invited him nevertheless returning to the bay, Rhode Islanders were into a joint venture—a minced clam cannery. Both hungry for bay quahogs, and Nelson Blount’s Marcus Urann and Nelson Blount were trying to plant was geared for a product that few wanted. guess what would follow the wartime boom. The He began selling his trucks to meet payroll. Plymouth Packing Company’s minced clams, they hoped, would command a sizeable share of a soon-to-emerge consumer market.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 5 NELSON’S NON-VIOLENT PROTEST From the start, clam supply—“shell stock” in industry parlance—was of constant concern to Blount Seafood. Pollution, storms and overfishing could all threaten natural sources. Nelson believed a solution might be to cultivate clams just as had long been done with oysters. The only complication was that the state set aside the most promising beds for oysters alone, even though that industry was nearly gone. In 1946 Nelson leased some oyster beds off of Bristol anyway and— to the consternation of state regulators—began seeding quahogs. The next year he decided to make a test case. After letting a local game warden know what he had planned, Nelson headed into the bay on the Blount boat Eddie B to make his harvest. When he returned, the game warden and the police were waiting at the pier. Although Nelson lost both the district court case and the appeal, he characteristically put a good spin on the effort, insisting that it would spur the state to implement a more “up-to-date program.”

A FIRM, A NEW FOOTING be stuck with excess supply, but he also realized With trouble all around, it was time to that this seeming problem might present an retrench. Nelson modified the line to process opportunity. Typically, New Englanders preferred bay quahogs on a much smaller scale. But their clam chowder in the winter—just as supplies characteristically, Nelson decided to build as of fresh clams were dwindling. Why not sell them well. The now empty part of the plant floor frozen? In the summer of 1946 the company could have been a liability, but he hoped to invested in 60,000 gallons of freezing capacity, and turn it into an asset. as Byron later wrote, “It stabilized the demand for the raw product all through the year.” During the war, Narragansett Oyster had immediately shipped nearly everything it On September 26, 1946, three businesses were produced. Nelson worried that he might still consolidated. Narragansett Oyster Company,

6 majority owned by Nelson; Plymouth Packing, With Byron focused on the oyster business and owned by Nelson and Marcus Urann, and E.B. Luther on the machinery, Nelson turned to Blount Sons Oyster Company, majority owned others to help run the business. James Milne by Byron, were merged to become the Blount was the senior member of the management Seafood Corporation. Nelson was by far the team and the only one with much prior business largest shareholder in the new firm, with the only experience. Milne took on routine administrative other sizeable stake held by Byron. Nelson became tasks for which his employer was unsuited. Deep president and treasurer; Byron, vice president. pockets enabled Milne to weather the tough postwar transition; he loaned Nelson the funds They were not the only Blounts in the business. to meet payroll more than once. The other half Nelson’s older brother Luther signed on for a of Blount’s small back office was Dalton “Red” time in the late 1940s. With engineering and Stratton, who joined the company shortly after machinist training that his brother lacked, the war and took on bookkeeping and other Luther’s imprint was on the equipment upgrades accounting tasks. made during the late 1940s. But Luther was uncomfortable working for his younger brother, and in 1949 he opened the Blount Marine boat- building business in Warren.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 7 But it was Fred Richardson that Nelson leaned on the most. Their relationship was exceptionally close, forged in mutual childhood enthusiasm: Fred had been a “Boston and Maine man”; Nelson, a fan of the New Haven Railroad. This was perhaps the first of the fundamental differences that distinguished the lifelong friends. While still in their teens, the two wrote a book on railroads. Nelson The management team in June 1949. From left, Luther Blount, Fred Richardson, spearheaded the project, but Fred, more patient Byron Blount, Nelson Blount, James Milne, and Dalton “Red” Stratton. and by far the better student, did most of the writing. Fred graduated from Brown University in 1939, worked in manufacturing until 1942, and served in the Coast Guard during the war. He joined Narragansett Oyster in 1945 and, upon Blount Seafood’s founding, became corporate secretary and plant superintendent.

STATE OF THE ART Blount Seafood soon grew to be state of the art in every category, but management seemed proudest of its machinery. One of the biggest innovations came early. Clams were traditionally “hand shucked,” their meat pried from the shell by manual labor on a production line. With Narragansett Oyster’s prices subject to wartime controls, Nelson had to find a new solution to this old problem. An oyster steamer was set up on the floor and incoming clams were lightly cooked—just enough to cause the shells to open and the clam meat to loosen. Businessmen and best friends Fred Richardson and Nelson Blount stand The result was fewer shuckers on the line and before an early trade show exhibit. lower labor costs. Knowledge gained from the

8 Although bay quahogs were the chief product during the late 1940s and 1950s, the Blount letterhead detailed the company’s full range of products, including scallops. partnership with Marcus Urann enabled Blount first Blount kitchen also went into operation to improve the process and boost production of that year, although on a modest scale. Warren valuable clam broth. Luther followed this up native Ida Bailey Allen earned $150 developing by designing the company’s first concentrated minced clam recipes for the Plymouth plant. clam broth condenser, putting Blount Seafood in a lucrative side business. Despite these initiatives, Blount was steadily becoming more an industrial supplier than Nelson Blount was hardly modest; for him to a consumer producer. After the war, soup acknowledge that he had learned much from manufacturers Heinz and Campbell’s both Marcus Urann meant a great deal. It was likely turned to Blount for chowder clams. A $35,000 that Urann, who served as a director, had expansion was undertaken just for the Campbell something to do with marketing initiatives business in 1947, although the rest of the stainless undertaken in the late 1940s. Although it hung steel and white-tiled plant was upgraded as well. onto its old “Point Judith” brand, in 1947 the company relabeled the entire line—clams and oysters—under the “Whitecap” brand—its logo a two-masted schooner in heavy seas. The

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 9 A gallon can for oysters marketed in the late 1940s and 1950s by Blount Seafood in full swing as viewed from the company pier. The tractors the E. B. Blount’s Sons subsidiary under the “Whitecap” label. to the left are owned by contractor Gilbert Pontes, while the trailers are Blount’s own. To the right are delivery trucks for local shellfish suppliers. In the foreground is Blount’s ever-present pile of discarded clam shells.

There were some setbacks. The Plymouth plant But still the old restlessness returned. Nelson never recovered from its wartime troubles and had been flying since earning a pilot’s license eventually had to be shuttered. The oyster in 1944. He ran twice for political office business survived and branched out into in Barrington and lost. Nelson was more scallops for a time. But it never thrived, even successful in industry initiatives, serving as the when spun off as the separate company E. B. chair of the Rhode Island Pollution Abatement Blount’s Sons, Inc. But the core products, Committee for two years before becoming vice clams and clam broth, and the core customers, president of the National Coast Anti-Pollution Heinz and Campbell’s—and increasingly the and Conservation League in 1948. latter—created a money machine. By 1949 Blount Seafood owned twelve trailers, six oyster When it came to business, Nelson was soon and clam boats, an airplane, and two plants preoccupied with finding the next big thing. that produced 90 percent of the East Coast’s As early as late 1946, Nelson was away from chowder clams. And Nelson had become a Blount Seafood for an entire month. During millionaire by age thirty. the late 1940s alone he sold lobsters, purchased

10 a weekly newspaper, and invested in a South American diamond mine. “I’ve lost an awful lot of money and have started a lot of harebrained enterprises,” Nelson later admitted.

In July 1948 lightning really did strike twice, although not as Nelson might have hoped, when thunderbolts from a summer electrical storm hit Blount Seafood in Warren and Nelson’s house in Barrington within fifteen minutes of each other. Although it was not entirely understood at the time, Nelson’s company had already experienced its second lucky strike—within a few years its largest customer would become its only customer, providing a generation’s worth of growth and stability to Blount Seafood.

Nelson Blount had many passions, and flying was one of his greatest. Blount Seafood owned a Cessna in the late 1940s, but Nelson is pictured here beside his own Piper Cub.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 11 12 Chapter Two: A Part of the Family

The winter of 1947-1948 was tough, even by New Blount Seafood would be happy to provide England standards. When Narragansett Bay froze frozen clams, Nelson maintained, but only over, executives at Campbell’s, the condensed at a guaranteed volume, and far higher than tsoup powerhouse in Camden, New Jersey, began Campbell’s offered. The soup giant was used to to worry about the clam chowder stock. Then setting the terms, so negotiations went nowhere. came a telephone call from Nelson Blount: “How Nelson and Fred were on the street hailing a would you like to buy a whole month’s supply at taxi when an official emerged from the building last summer’s prices?” The freezers that he had to concede. The prizes that accrued to Blount installed just months earlier contained the scarce Seafood were substantial. The relationship clams that Campbell’s needed. Nelson and Fred with the nation’s top food processor provided Richardson headed to Camden, determined to engineering and quality control experience that use their leverage to their best advantage. kept Blount at the front rank of the food industry.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 13 Being part of the Campbell’s family also insulated the company from pressures faced by other firms. But there was a cost: continual concern that Campbell’s might change its mind.

BLOUNT CULTURE IN BOOM TIMES Through the 1950s, however, the benefits of the Campbell’s contract far exceeded the liabilities. Blount’s timing had been good: Campbell’s was in the midst of a great wave of expansion. From sales of $100 million at the start of World War II, receipts surged to $500 million by the late 1950s as the soup giant’s advertising slogans became part of American culture and its red and white cans the cornerstones of every kitchen. Tomato and chicken noodle were staples, of course, but Manhattan Style and New England Style clam chowder were also solid sellers, and Blount’s product was in every can. Through the 1940s, Blount had sold not only to Campbell’s but also to companies such as F.H. Snow and Heinz. But as Campbell’s scaled up production, it demanded more and more of Blount’s output—by 1950, virtually all of it. This edition of Campbell’s monthly internal publication profiled Blount Seafood. Nelson Blount and Fred Richardson thought Campbell’s inspector Charles Heitz is pictured here on the deck of a dredging vessel. hard about making this commitment, but the advantages were too great to turn down. Costs that other producers bore, such as marketing and advertising, would be of no concern to Blount, nor would there be the cash flow concerns that came from balancing multiple accounts: Campbell’s always paid its bills promptly. The deal was sealed with a handshake, and for the 14 By the 1950s, Blount worked, for all practical purposes, exclusively for Campbell’s Soup. Still, as this 1952 shipping order indicates, a few smaller orders were still filled for companies such as H. J. Heinz.

next thirty years, Blount Seafood became a on quality control through full-time plant virtual division of Campbell’s Soup. inspectors. In the late 1950s, Charles Heitz was on Campbell’s payroll, but he spent every The relationship grew ever closer. It was working day either in the Blount plant or on its not just clam meat that Campbell’s wanted. supplier’s boats. Concentrated broth was an equally invaluable component of its chowders, so in late 1950, As Blount Seafood settled into its long, Campbell’s installed a three-story evaporator at steady run as Campbell’s chief shellfish the Warren plant to boost supply. It was the supplier, an equally stable corporate culture first of many such instances in which the soup took shape. From the men who fired the company effectively reconfigured the Blount boilers every morning at 5 a.m. to the production floor. Not only did Campbell’s cleanup crew that worked into every evening, build up capacity, it also kept an eagle eye nearly all Blount employees were residents of

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 15 STATE OF THE ART - 1949 By 1949 when these photographs were taken, the production line had already been through many upgrades and process improvements; it remained essentially the same for nearly another two decades. Pictured are just a few of the steps.

16 COUNTERCLOCKWISE: In and Out: Burlap bags of raw stock are unloaded on one side of the loading dock, while fresh-packed cans go out the other.

“Cooking”: A chain bag full of clams goes into a thirty-bushel retort for the light steaming that loosens the meat. On the left is Russell Magill who was hired on at age 16 and worked his way up to office manager. He died shortly after retiring, having devoted his entire working life to Blount.

Manual Labor: Shuckers remove clam meat from the shells.

Washing: The clam meat is cleaned and shell particles removed in a Blount-designed “squirrel cage” machine.

One Last Look: Sorting and washing before the clams are canned and head for refrigeration or back to the loading dock. The man looking on in a white lab coat is an inspector for Campbell’s.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 17 Campbell’s inspector Heitz stands in the factory doorway. Luther, Byron, and Nelson Blount during the 1950s. At mid-decade, Luther, already operating his own shipyard, purchased the E. B. Blount’s Sons name. Byron retired two years later.

Warren or closely surrounding communities. loyalty,” said Howard Huftalen, who joined in The division of labor among the forty to 1952. “You could count on a person’s word.” fifty plant employees reflected the gender presumptions common at the time: men Presiding over it all was the “upstairs” usually handled machinery and maintenance, management team. Although his hours and women only worked the line, sorting and were unpredictable, Nelson remained in cutting the clam meat. charge through the early 1950s, his mercurial approach—“generous and smiling one minute Blount provided a few modest benefits. The and thundering the next,” as one acquaintance company offered a Blue Cross medical plan, and put it—familiar to all. Everyone at the plant in 1953 its first pension plan was implemented. knew, recalled Nelson’s wife Ruth, that “when Seasonal landmarks grew familiar: clam bakes he yelled he would get over it in a minute.” in the summer, Christmas parties in the winter. But it was interaction in the plant, especially But Nelson had never gotten over his love of trains, coffee breaks shared by nearly every employee, and when the Edaville Railroad, a nearby narrow- that provided opportunities to compare notes, gauge attraction, went up for sale, he convinced swap stories, and create a corporate family. the Blount board, which inevitably acceded to “Blount seafood was built up because of the wishes of the largest shareholder, to buy it. 18 There were also more conventional attempts at ALARUMS, EXCURSIONS, AND A STEADY HAND diversification. The company considered going In Shakespeare, “alarums and excursions” into the fish chowder business in the mid-1950s, denote noises and commotion offstage, an apt for example, and it tried repeatedly to build up description of Nelson’s contribution to the the oyster business. Despite high hopes, E. B. company during most of the 1950s and 1960s. Blount’s Sons never solved the problem of supply. In 1954, citing boredom among Barrington’s In 1956, after attempting unsuccessfully to raise blue bloods, he bought a farm and moved his oysters off the Florida coast, the company sold E. family to rural New Hampshire. From then on, B. Blount’s Sons to Blount Marine. Byron retired the company watched mostly from afar as the two years later. legend of Nelson Blount grew.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 19 AN UNUSUAL ACQUISITION It would have been hard to imagine a more unusual acquisition for a seafood firm than a narrow-gauge railroad—that is, unless the firm was Nelson Blount’s. Ellis D. Atwood, a distant cousin of Nelson’s, built the Edaville Railroad on a cranberry plantation in South Carver, Massachusetts, in the 1940s. The attraction floundered after Atwood died and was nearly bankrupt when Nelson acquired it for the company in 1955. Although Nelson was off to other things before long, the company made good use of Edaville. From 1955 to 1970 when the line was finally sold, Blount employees could obtain part-time work on the narrow-gauge when things were slow at the shop. In the early hours of the morning, a few men would gather in Warren and then hop in a station wagon bound for Edaville to spend a day on the track gang, in the machine shop, or painting rolling stock. Some even went to Edaville to stay. During the Blount years, all three of Edaville’s managers were promoted out of the plant.

First there were the Kentucky Rifles. In the 1940s, There were also new business deals, chief Nelson established himself as the nation’s premier among them an attempt to establish an collector of the firearms. A few graced the walls of East Coast tuna company. In 1961 Nelson his office at Blount Seafood—in time, most went organized the Cape Cod Tuna Corporation to Edaville. Then there was big game hunting. to catch bluefin in Atlantic waters. It was Nelson tracked caribou in Newfoundland and with high hopes that he commissioned a stalked grizzlies in British Columbia, sometimes sixty-four-foot craft from Luther especially for flying to the hunt in his personal airplane. the business, but Nelson had not anticipated Curiously, Nelson seemed to become ever more the resourcefulness of the big West Coast the reckless aviator as he entered middle age. He competitors. Within a year they had moved in ditched four light planes during the 1950s alone to capture the Atlantic bluefin business. and only gave up air show barnstorming after a near disaster in 1960. 20 Aside from his company, Nelson Blount’s greatest legacy was the founding of Steamtown, which eventually became a National Historic Site. Here, Nelson stands on the old roundhouse turntable at Steamtown’s first home in North Walpole, New Hampshire.

In 1954, with its plant investments leveling In the early 1960s Nelson became a minor public off, Blount Seafood began paying steady and figure with speaking engagements, newspaper sizeable dividends. Nelson plowed many of columns, and even television appearances his into the mature version of his youthful enunciating an increasingly elaborate personal fascination. He had qualified as a Boston philosophy. Then, in 1962, Nelson became & Maine engineer in the early 1950s and a born-again Christian, an experience that then began buying rolling stock for Edaville. rippled through his family and spread among Soon he was acquiring standard-gauge steam friends, including the Richardsons. Evangelical locomotives in abundance as the nation’s Christianity soon became deeply dyed in the railroads converted to diesel. In 1960 Nelson culture of the company. Alcohol disappeared bought a ten-acre rail yard in North Walpole, from company Christmas parties, and a new New Hampshire, and began building “Steamtown emphasis on spirituality marked those and USA.” It was soon the nation’s preeminent other occasions. operator of steam railway excursions and had a colorful career, moving several times before Through it all, Fred Richardson was a steady ending up, after Nelson’s death, a National presence at Blount Seafood. He routinely put in Historical Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania. twelve-hour days, spending much of his time at Nelson’s desk. After James Milne died in 1959,

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 21 Fred’s close friend Red Stratton took on new responsibilities, and as a sounding board for Fred he became the effective number two man at the company. By then, Fred Richardson understood the plant, the people, and the customer as Nelson never had. He could take most of the credit for the stability and security that both Campbell’s and Blount employees enjoyed during these years. On at least one occasion, when Nelson’s enthusiasms threatened to undermine employee morale, Fred did not hesitate to deliver a rebuke. As the 1960s drew on, Fred kept one eye on the In the late 1950s the management team confers with its number one customer business and another on his best friend, always around Nelson’s desk. From left is James Milne, Red Stratton, Byron Blount, Nelson, W. L. O’Neill and R. G. Foster of Campbell’s, and Fred Richardson. wondering what Nelson might be up to next. And as Nelson trotted the globe, Fred showed up in Warren every morning, ready, said son George, “to deliver on the promises that he made.”

THE PROBLEM OF SUPPLY Stable as it was during these years, the company’s foundations rested on the uncertain sands of shellfish supply. After World War II, the Rhode Island clam fishing business resumed its quaint Currier and Ives appearance. During the 1950s, some 3,000 individual shell fishermen, equipped only with a small boat and a set of tongs or a bull rake, bobbed on the tide each day, digging Mercenaria mercenaria out of the shallow waters of Narragansett Bay. Dredgers had recently tried to use technology to expand the supply, but they had been beaten back by outraged tongers and state legislators Through the 1950s most of Blount’s supply was pulled by “tongers” out of the bay. The who allowed them into the bay only in winter. men in skiffs would periodically deposit their supply in the larger boat in the background. Raising clams like oysters had always seemed a 22 Bay quahogs, their scientific name Mercenaria mercenaria since their shells were used as money by Indians and early settlers. These were Blount’s main product into the 1960s.

possibility. Nelson had tried it in Narragansett TROUBLE IN THE FAMILY Bay and had seeded Maine’s Casco Bay from Campbell’s was a demanding patron, but the an airplane. In 1955 the company bought an benefits always seemed to outweigh the costs. experimental boat for transplanting quahogs “They were tough,” acknowledged Howard but almost immediately sold it to the state. Huftalen, who managed the plant from the 1960s to the 1980s. But Campbell’s tutelage In the late 1950s Blount was buying shell stock ensured that state and federal plant inspections up and down the coast, from Maine to New always remained routine. Again and again, said Jersey. But the problem remained: pollution Huftalen, inspectors shook their heads and and overfishing simply made bay quahogs admitted that they “never saw such a clean scarce, so prices went up and Blount’s profit plant with such a dirty process.” One of the margins went down. The directors agonized conditions of membership in the Campbell’s over the problem, but not until 1966 did family, however, was full disclosure. Once asked they hit upon a solution: return to the Arctica to demonstrate a Blount innovation to another islandica upon which Blount Seafood had Campbell’s vendor, Huftalen countered, “like been built. With Campbell’s approval, Blount Hell, that’s ours!” The response was succinct: switched to ocean quahogs in the late 1960s. “Well, it’s either that or you’re out of business.” By the early 1970s, Blount was acquiring 1,000 bushels of clams a day at half the former cost. It No one expected summary execution by seemed that the dependable ocean quahog had Campbell’s, but management had always again solved the problem of supply. worried, said Nelson’s son Ted Blount, “about the direction that they were going and how we fit into that plan.” Management always set

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 23 this concern aside, however. In the summer of 1967, a South Carolina company made an earnest offer of acquisition. In late July, Nelson sat down with the board of directors—Fred Richardson, Red Stratton, and wife Ruth— to explain his position. Years ago, he said, Blount had decided “to become, in effect, part of the Campbell family.” He was determined to remain there. The offer was rejected. A little more than a month later, on August 31, 1967, returning in his light plane from a day at Steamtown, Nelson ran out of fuel. He attempted a crash landing—something he had done before. This time he did not succeed. His death was a great tragedy, but there can be little denying that Nelson pushed his luck farther than most. His company, in sharp contrast, had always been managed conservatively. Nevertheless, by the early 1970s, Blount Seafood seemed to have run out of luck as well. The chain of events was begun in the late 1960s by an advertising executive who This page from the board of directors minute books details Nelson’s discovered that American households decision to remain a part of the Campbell’s family. Blount management cited the document often in subsequent years. considered Campbell’s condensed soups to be fine for children but insufficiently hearty for the “head of the household.” The result was the heavily promoted “Manhandlers,” with more meat in every serving. This led, in the early 1970s, to the introduction of the more long-lived “Chunky Soup” line. At first this looked like a boon for Blount, but there was a problem. Ocean quahogs were tough. Blount used pressure cooking to tenderize them, 24 but that raised processing costs. And then, of course, there was the taste, fine perhaps for some New England palates, but for its Chunky Soups Campbell’s believed that mainstream America would prefer something sweeter— something like Spisula solidissimus, sea clams found in deep waters mostly off Long Island and New Jersey. It was a business that Blount was not in. On April 6, 1972, the directors considered the proposition that “the sea clam is a competitive threat to our high-volume business.” They decided that lowering the cost of ocean quahogs might overcome all objections. Blount had been developing a new process for ocean quahogs that did not involve pressure tenderization—the task was to sell it to Campbell’s. Five days later Fred Richardson, Red Stratton, and Ted Blount went to Camden to deliver some samples and plead their case. Campbell’s made no guarantees and never acted precipitately—it would be months before anyone would know. In the meantime, Blount Campbell’s decision to use sea clams, pictured here, in its Chunky Soup line tried other ways of cutting the costs of ocean created a crisis for Blount Seafood in the early 1970s. quahogs, investing $250,000 in a boat that could handle high-volume, water-powered “jet” dredging equipment. By September, the only word from Campbell’s was that “their requirements will be substantially reduced for the coming year.” By the end of the year, operations were down to about two days per week. The winter of 1972-1973 was a mild one for New England, but it was a tough one for Blount.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 25 TOPPING OUT. THE BLOUNT FACTORY WAS SYSTEMATICALLY REBUILT AND EXPANDED FROM THE MID-1970S THROUGH THE 1990S. PICTURED IS A TOWER ERECTED IN THE WINTER OF 1975 TO ACCOMMODATE A NEW CLAM BROTH EVAPORATOR.

26 Chapter Three: From Floor to Ceiling

When the directors met on June 13, 1973, the From 1973 to 1991, Ted took those steps and mood was somber. Campbell’s was not going many more. He built Blount Seafood’s revenues to purchase ocean quahogs for Chunky Soup, up from this low point to the heights of financial wno matter how they were tenderized. For six success. He expanded Blount’s product line months the plant had been working less than exponentially and rebuilt the plant from floor half time. Its brand new boat, the Whitecap, to ceiling. And it was all accomplished amid had been tied up much of the time so as not the wholesale reconfiguration of the seafood to compete with Blount’s regular suppliers. industry by federal regulation. There was no choice but to shut down for more than a month and retool for the production TRANSITION of sea clams. As Blount Seafood’s president, Born in 1943, Frederick Nelson “Ted” Blount Red Stratton made the proposal. It fell to Ted was Nelson’s eldest son. He came of age Blount, however, to implement it. accompanying his father on his adventures and would later submit that, to some extent, he “grew up in a plane.” That experience, coupled with a technical and analytical bent, led Ted to study aerospace engineering at Boston University. His own spiritual journey led him into postgraduate studies at the Denver Seminary. He had just arrived when news came of his father’s death. Ted had never before given much thought to the business. But he instantly realized that “the family needed someone to be involved, and I was the only logical choice.” He began working

Ted Blount, pictured here in the mid- 1980s. He was the understated but innovative engineer who rebuilt the plant and the product line during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 27 out a management transition plan with Fred Richardson. Ted was determined to finish training for the ministry, but summers were spent at Blount where he started as a laborer and moved steadily through the operations. “I punched a time card and worked for an hourly wage,” Ted later acknowledged.

Fred Richardson had taken the title of president after Nelson’s death. In early 1971 he moved up to chairman and turned the presidency over to Red Stratton. But in effect, from then until he formally became president in the fall of 1973, Ted Blount was always in charge. Ted was not the flamboyant leader that Nelson had been, but he had the patience the company needed during a period of manifold growth and continual challenge. “What he lacks in flair he more than makes up for with careful thought and consistent action and commitment,” said Fred’s son George Richardson.

George was in a position to know. Ted’s best friend from childhood, it had been George’s idea that both men attend the Denver Seminary. Upon graduation he worked as a Above: In addition to serving as counselor and sounding board to Ted youth pastor in Barrington—refusing Ted’s Blount, George Richardson guided the company through the hazards of regular entreaties that he join the business. supply and regulation from the 1970s to the 1990s. In 1972 George finally relented. He began Below: The corporate letterhead in 1976. With Ted Blount still new to the as assistant plant superintendent but quickly job, Fred Richardson is prominently identified as chairman. took on the problem of supply, spending much of his time early on working the Whitecap. 28 Phil Pitzer at work in the Blount back office during the late 1980s. The chalkboard behind him charts Blount inventory.

There were a few veterans supporting this new Up to 1984, when Ted’s younger brother management team. In the late 1960s, William Steve Blount took over, Howard Huftalen Cameron came in from another business to supervised production. Mechanical skills made take over the back office. When he retired Huftalen invaluable from the time he joined in the late 1970s, he was succeeded by Russ in 1952; leadership ability marked him out for Magill, who had been with Blount almost management. More than one employee was from the beginning. With one major client, treated to one of “Howie’s” seemingly offhand Campbell’s, and two primary products, clams anecdotes—tales that inevitably ended with and broth, Blount’s administrative burden was gentle guidance about how not to repeat a light, requiring only a handful of employees as certain mistake or misstep. late as the mid-1980s. Ted nevertheless made sure that Blount computerized its accounts and Huftalen’s generous approach was emblematic payroll earlier than most counterparts. of a company culture that by the 1970s and 1980s was marked by cooperation, accommodation, and an unabashedly Christian ethic. “There

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 29 Among the institutions that helped nurture a coherent Blount corporate culture was the Whitecap News, published intermittently during the 1980s and 1990s.

was a part of Blount Culture that was tied to Barrington Baptist Church in Barrington, Rhode Island,” said Phil Pitzer, who joined the office staff in the mid-1980s.

The bedrock of that mutual concern was the company’s commitment to safety. Constant upgrades, innovations, and a growing workforce presented many opportunities for mishaps, and Blount had a few. But throughout, the board and management gave a great deal of authority to the company safety committee and closely monitored its program.

If the leadership transition of the early 1970s was smooth, the business was not. Despite the switchover to sea clams, receipts stalled at about $1 million. Then, in early 1975, Campbell’s began expanding Chunky Soup production. Blount was turning out 80,000 pounds of clams per week by late 1976. The higher production volume made the old method of block-freezing clams impractical. After many false starts, Blount came up with a technique for freezing each piece separately. This individually quick frozen, or IQF, process allowed for even greater daily volume and created an opportunity to sell smaller packages of clam meat to restaurants. Revenues shot up, reaching $3 million by the end of 1977. The roller- coaster ride continued. By the late 1970s, known sea clam beds had been overfished, prices were up, supplies were down—and Campbell’s was again in the market for ocean quahogs. Blount adapted accordingly and broke new revenue records on sales of its original product. 30 SECRETS AND SOLUTIONS Blount people have often tended to be the tinkering type. The result has been a host of innovations and improvements over the years, a few of them now legendary. In the early 1970s, for example, Campbell’s asked Blount to switch its packaging from frozen blocks to bags of “individually quick frozen” clams. Years of adjustment followed. Blount started with machinery intended to freeze diced chicken with carbon dioxide, but clams were far wetter than chicken and Blount soon had a mess on its hands. That method was eventually made to work, but Blount did not really master the IQF challenge until the early 1990s. The solution: a combination of liquid nitrogen and a Blount-designed belt with spinning fingers that froze the clam strips in mid-air.

Some experiments were startlingly elegant. When microscopic pearls that escaped all other cleaning systems started showing up in the clam meat, Ted Blount took a page from nature. Remembering “how the sand settles downstream from a rock,” he introduced a trough into the line—one with bumps for barriers. Sure enough, the pearls settled out behind the “rocks” in Blount’s artificial stream. The solution served until Blount bought its “laminar flow” machine.

DIVERSIFICATION if we were going to grow,” Ted recalled, “the By the late 1970s, management had become area was not in shellfish processing.” Blount deeply concerned about the boom and had to do more than move a commodity— bust Campbell’s account, and prosperity it had to sell something at a premium. provided the breathing room required for strategic thinking. Clams were becoming a A first tentative attempt to diversify came in 1976 high-volume, minimum-profit product—a with the creation of a subsidiary, Narragansett commodity. Blount had so far managed to Bay Fish Farms. It soon became evident that remain competitive, but uncertain supply left Blount had neither the resources nor expertise no guarantee that would continue. “I knew that to pioneer the field of salmon farming, however.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 31 George Richardson at work on the salmon farming project, Blount’s first—and unsuccessful—try at diversification.

Ted Blount then began laying the groundwork for products, Blount went to work. The first big the production of less-speculative retail ventures. venture was conch. Mostly marketed as the He set up a laboratory to identify opportunities Italian delicacy scungilli, conch was a sizeable for diversification. He hired marine biologist snail abundant in Narragansett Bay. By 1985, Gerald Levine to help develop new products. Blount was selling a million pounds of conch He installed more freezers for product storage. a year, but the retail market proved as tough to Finally, he set aside a separate processing room crack as a conch shell; most was sold wholesale where specialized equipment could easily be set in frozen blocks. up and taken down. Stuffed clams followed closely upon conch. In 1980, with the goal of eventually obtaining This product not only put a premium on the half its annual sales from “value-added” retail shells that Blount otherwise sold at a loss, it

32 opened the door—if only a crack—into the food processing business as Blount ground its clam meat into a stuffing mixture that consumers could cook at home. Within a year, the new ventures had begun edging into the clam line: Blount started running clams for four days and new products on the fifth.

As the decade went on, the products—grouped in Blount’s new “Division II”—multiplied. The company even began cooking seafood soups. Helped along by a modest advertising program and a small sales staff, Blount was marketing conch, stuffed clams, stuffed scallops, and three varieties of chowder in New England supermarket chains by mid-decade.

Blount did not do it all alone. In 1985 the company landed its first “co-packing” arrangement, producing for the Bayshore Chowder company. There were partnerships as well. New England Seafood Flavors, formed in 1987 to serve the clam broth market, struggled; New England Mussel Products, created in 1988, flourished. In 1989, with mussels packaged mostly in bags showing potential among buyers for New England restaurants, New England Mussel Products hired Randy Neal to promote the product.

Stuffed clams, introduced in the late 1980s, were Blount’s most successful side product There were plenty of products that did not make until the introduction of soup. This label is for Blount’s own Point Judith brand. it, including a line of “newburgs” that did not sell and a surimi venture that never got started. But that was to be expected. More disheartening was a dynamic that began with conches and

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 33 In March 1986 a worker lays down plastic tubs for chowder, co-packed With Campbell’s backing, Blount kept the plant on the cutting edge. under the Bayshore Chowder brand. That this was a new venture is With evident pride, Floyd Huftalen (left) and Garland Overwood (right) evident in that he is using the stuffed clam line. Upturned clamshells, show off the control panel for the clam broth evaporator. rather than plastic tubs, were usually arranged on the white rings.

recurred with each new venture. After an initial upon Ted’s countless visits downstairs. As an shakeout period, the cost of raw materials rose engineer, Ted Blount instinctively saw the line and market prices fell. In short, the new “value- as the sum of its processes—heating and cooling, added” products also became commodities. mixing and cooking—any of which could be Undaunted, Blount continued to explore new adjusted or perfected. He encouraged others to markets through the early 1990s. “We just went experiment as well, his usual caveat being, “as from one idea to another,” said Steve Blount. long as you can put it back if it doesn’t work.” The relentless innovation was helped along by INNOVATION Steve Blount, who joined his older brother’s These forays into the retail market had to be company in 1977. Steve had earlier opted for financed, of course, and two things made that the construction challenges of Blount Marine possible. The first was the steady earnings of over the routine of the factory floor, but upon the Campbell’s account during these years; the arriving at Blount Seafood he found ample second was a 1979 corporate reorganization room for engineering and experimentation. that gave Ted Blount full control of the As he put it, “we were constantly thinking it company. More interested in the company’s through, trying to make it better.” future than his own finances, Ted discontinued the generous dividend policy of the late 1950s Into the 1970s, one of the weaknesses of the and 1960s, freeing up cash not only for new clam processing line was that the cooking ventures but also for internal improvements. required to loosen the meat was still done by batch rather than in a continuous process. One Many of the improvements to the line during solution seemed to be adapting an industrial these years were incremental, following potato peeler for the job. In 1977 the line was shut down and the thirty-foot-high machine 34 FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 35 Even as the company diversified, Blount remained dedicated to serving the Campbell’s Soup company. Pictured, a Campbell’s official presents Ted Blount with the company’s “Select Supplier” award.

installed. “Everything went wrong with it,” recalled Steve. The general inclination was to stick things out and try to make it work. Ted’s contribution, on this as other occasions, was an insistence on cutting losses quickly—Blount pulled the plug and looked for a better way.

The investment in the plant extended far clam line was faster and cleaner than ever and beyond such improvements: by 1984, the ready for a decade’s more work. cost of replacing worn-out machinery alone was averaging $1 million a year. Blount was, SHELL STOCK AND REGULATION in fact, building up a very valuable property. On the production side, despite intervention In 1980 Campbell’s, intent on “integrated by its largest customer, Blount largely production,” made an offer to purchase. But controlled its own destiny. When it came to as Blount considered the offer, new Campbell’s supply, however, Blount was subject to an management opted for a “just in time” inventory ever-increasing number of variables. Some plan. Blount kept the company and could do were familiar: weather, pollution, overfishing little but concede when Campbell’s insisted and state regulation. But just as Blount was that it hold onto inventory at substantial cost. bouncing back from the costly switchover from quahogs to sea clams, the federal But there was ample reward for the sacrifice. government got involved. Between 1983 and 1984 the company’s business almost doubled, from $5.5 million The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation to $10 million. Blount was running at a steady and Management Act, passed in 1976, sought clip, processing an average of 40,000 pounds of to deal comprehensively with the depletion clam meat a day, mostly for Campbell’s. In the of the nation’s commercial fishing grounds. early 1990s Blount became a Campbell’s “Select It created a National Fisheries Management Supplier”—an “honor and a responsibility,” Service and assembled a number of regional as Ted put it, that tightened compliance and councils tasked with creating effective fisheries reporting requirements even further. In the management plans. As an advisor to the New early 1990s came another bump up in the England and Mid-Atlantic regional councils, Campbell’s ride, and new machinery acquired George Richardson was in a position to from a Canadian firm boosted capacity even represent Blount’s interests. But he could further. By the time that was installed, Blount’s

36 BLOUNT’S BOATS high-pressure water, or “jet,” dredging equipment, the Whitecap Blount’s boats have ranged from the Rhodoyster, an experimental became part of an effort to lower the cost of ocean quahogs. oyster seeding ship built by Luther Blount in the late 1940s, to Although the boat was tied up when demand was down, as soon the specialized Stormy Weather, which the company owned for as it hit the water, Blount’s dealers started thinking about getting mere weeks in 1955 before donating it to the state for a quahog with the times. “They were catching a hundred bushels and we transplantation program. But most memorable were Blount’s more were catching five hundred bushels,” recalled George Richardson, conventional craft. who spent weeks on the Whitecap in the early 1970s. Thirteen years later, Blount purchased the Wando River. With a capacity of In 1972 Ted Blount acquired a wooden vessel from Snow’s canning 1,500 bushels—three times that of the Whitecap—there was no company and renamed it the Whitecap. At the time, most quahog longer any need to enlighten fellow fishermen: the Wando River fishermen clung to old, inefficient equipment. Fitted with new caught all the quahogs that Blount could use.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 37 The Wando River offloads cages of ocean quahogs at the Warren pier. By the 1990s the vessel supplied all of the ocean quahogs processed by Blount Seafood.

only watch as the authors of the first fisheries This came as no surprise to Blount. It had management plan put together a dangerous long been allied with the top clam fishing and unworkable “time at sea” system. firm in Atlantic waters. Management had first encountered Leroy “Barney” Truex in 1972. He In 1990 “time at sea” gave way to a safer, but was then barely out of his teens, working for a equally problematic, “Individually Transferrable New Jersey supplier, and was, recalled George, Quota” (ITQ) system under which boat owners “the most aggressive, the most entrepreneurial received the right to catch a set number of captain out there.” By the 1990s Truex had bushels per year, based on its average catch fifteen boats, held the biggest quota share prior to 1990. In 1984, Ted, George, and Steve by far, and provided Blount with all its sea had purchased the ocean quahog vessel Wando clams. Blount’s own Wando River provided River. This qualified Blount under the system, the company with all of the ocean quahogs but its share was minimal. In general, the ITQ it needed. Supply was more stable than ever, system was a windfall for the big fleet owners but still the ITQ system changed the business. and bad news for processors. From 1990 on, the added value that accrued from any given catch flowed more to the fishermen than the processors. 38 This photo, taken around 2000, confirms Ted Blount’s record as a builder. The original buildings lie under the two peaked roofs in the center of the complex; the rest reflect a quarter-century of growth.

In 1973 Blount Seafood’s receipts were less than one hundred employees, 40,000 square feet of $1 million. By the early 1990s, the clam revenues plant floor, and another 10,000 square feet of had hit a historic high at about $12 million. warehouse space, there was still not enough Although a small share of current business, room. It was a puzzle fitting people, products, frozen mussels earned nearly as much as the and machines between floor and ceiling. But entire company had two decades earlier. With still Ted Blount was thinking about growth.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 39 40 Chapter Four: Outside the Box

In the early 1990s, the executive office at value-added business. The company had stuck Blount Seafood was a last link with the past. to its traditional strengths: efficient production Downstairs, Ted could still point out the part and high quality—that was their “better iof the plant had been built in 1842, although mousetrap.” But by the 1990s, acknowledged steady renovations and additions, most recently George, “it was the people with the better in 1992, had obliterated the evidence. But marketing plan that were getting a path beat to upstairs, the varnished, wood-paneled walls their door.” Ted Blount knew what had to be that had once held Nelson’s Kentucky Rifles done, but he also knew that his own expertise remained. The desks where Nelson Blount and fell short. It was about time to step aside and let Fred Richardson once sat still loomed over the others lead Blount outside the box. “Whitecap” logo inlaid on the floor. But now the office belonged to Ted Blount and George LEARNING TO SELL Richardson, and there was a difference. Once With few exceptions, Blount Seafood developed there had been sunlight, but as the plant its talent from within. But by the early 1990s expanded windows became walls. The old there was too much that the company could office was now darker, boxed in. not learn on its own—most of it was about sales In more senses than one, success had left and marketing. In late 1991 Ted looked long Blount boxed in. The business had expanded and hard for a senior manager from outside the along with Campbell’s, but clams were now company who could provide this expertise and commodities that provided unspectacular more. Someone, he said, who could “spearhead profits and little opportunity for growth. Nor the development of a new corporate identity.” had Blount been able to substantially grow its He found John Durkin.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 41 During the 1990s, John Durkin taught Blount Seafood how to succeed in sales.

Durkin was approaching the end of his and the wholesalers that serve institutional career when he came on as director of sales customers. Key to serving this sector was and marketing in January 1992. He knew downsizing the IQF technology that Blount the retail food business intimately, having had employed on the clam line since the 1970s. worked for independent distributors as well as By 1994, five-pound IQF bags of chopped clams for General Foods, Frito-Lay, and Pizza Hut. were steady food service sellers. He knew a lot of people and had a host of industry connections. Durkin also helped change the conservative company culture. He saw potential in the It did not take Durkin long to find new ways stuffed clam line but insisted that Blount to sell Blount’s products. By early 1993 he had vary the menu. Eyebrows were raised when placed Blount Seafood products in a number he launched a cheese-flavored version. “We of retail outlets including the Price Club all thought it was going to be silly,” recalled warehouse chain. Durkin also made inroads production supervisor Rocky Silva, “but it was into the food service industry—restaurants a big seller.”

42 Up to 1994, Blount had tackled each retail campaign separately, marketing different products under the Whitecap, Point Judith, When John Durkin and New England Mussel Products names. In convinced Blount to 1994 Blount acquired the mussel joint venture introduce flavored and brought all of the products together under stuffed clams, a few a newly designed Blount brand logo. eyebrows were raised, but the initiative turned Yet another joint venture, launched the out to be the first of many that took Blount in next year, took Blount into the value-added profitable new directions. outskirts of familiar territory. The Eastern Clam Corporation based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, produced high-quality sea clam tenders and steaks. Production was slow because the clams had to be painstakingly hand shucked by skilled workers, mostly Cape Verde islanders. But profits were reasonable, and three years later this successful subsidiary was also wholly acquired by Blount. Blount was learning how to sell. In the second half of the 1990s, food service customers began to account for a sizeable portion of Blount’s balance sheet. There were IQF clams for Macaroni Grill restaurants and mussels for Buca DiBeppo and the Olive Garden. Sales of seafood products to SYSCO, the food service giant, hit $1 million in 1996 and passed $5 million by the end of the decade.

Skilled hand shuckers Between the lines of the success story, however, produce meat for could be seen some troubling signs. The high-value clam seafood product market continued to display strips and steaks at the Eastern Clam the familiar trend toward higher volume and Corporation, later lower profit over time. At first Blount had Blount New Bedford. purchased mussels fished off of Cape Cod.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 43 In 1994 the long-used Whitecap and Point Judith The variety of new products sold by Blount during the 1990s included frozen offerings gave way to a new Blount brand. lobster bisque, IQF clam strips, mussels, and vacuum-packed littleneck clams.

When that supply dwindled, the company Through the mid-1990s, Ted devoted much of obtained them in Maine and then Canada. his time to what he called “considered growth,” As acquisition costs went up, new competition working with John Durkin to determine what drove profit margins down. The same dynamic new products they could make in the Warren also occurred in the stuffed clam sector. There plant and sell at a profit. George Richardson were still things to figure out, but Blount was and Steve Blount, meanwhile, were preoccupied learning faster. by the never-ending supply problem. By 1996 the search had led them to Iceland to outfit a THE CROWD AT THE TOP processing plant and to teach local fishermen At about the same time that he decided to how to shellfish. By 2000 they were holding build up Blount’s sales expertise, Ted began to together joint ventures in Iceland, New think about retirement, hoping to “back away Zealand, and Canada, and sourcing shell stock from direct control of the company” by mid- as far away as India and China. decade. Partly due to Ted’s deliberative bent, In 1997 Ted handed the presidency over to and mostly because the transition coincided George as part of a transition plan, but not with a fundamental shift in corporate focus, surprisingly given his many commitments, the process took a bit longer than expected. George hardly ruled with a heavy hand. Through the late 1990s there were essentially The production line remained under the two management teams. John Durkin retired in purview of Steve Blount, who served as vice 1998, but Ted and George backed away slowly president of operations. One of Steve’s chief as the new generation stepped to the fore. 44 contributions during these years was overseeing implementation of a “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points” (HACCP) program, a complex systematic means of ensuring food safety up front through prevention rather than after the fact through inspection. The measure of his success can be taken by the fact that the Food and Drug Administration, which implemented the program for seafood producers, considered Blount a model for the industry. As the youngest member of the second generation, Steve Blount was something of a transitional figure; most of his time in the mid- 1990s was spent coaxing as much productivity out of every square foot of the Warren plant as possible. The question of how to move Blount out of commodities and into high-profit, value- added sectors remained to be answered. Solving it fell to the third generation and the newest member of the management team. During the years of transition and diversification, Nelson’s next to youngest son Steve Blount provided continuity and a tight F. Nelson Blount II, known to all as “Todd,” was focus on the seafood operations. born in 1967 during his father’s first year at the Denver seminary. Growing up he considered Blount Seafood to be a “summer job kind of place”—he worked in maintenance and processing during his high school years and attended college at the University of Vermont. After college, Todd Blount went to work for NYNEX, the New England telephone company that became a part of Verizon. His time at the bureaucratic communications giant convinced him to build his career at the family business: “I wanted to be part of something smaller,” he joked.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 45 IN SEARCH OF SUPPLY Long before Nelson Blount’s day, pollution, overfishing and storm damage routinely drove shell fishermen ever farther afield. By the 1990s, Blount was seeking out supply for its many specialty products from across the globe. Mussels, for example, had once been plentiful in Narragansett Bay. But by the time Blount made them part of its product line, the safest mussel supplies were off of Cape Cod and Nantucket. Then, in October 1991, came the event dubbed “The Perfect Storm.” It destroyed the New England mussel beds and sent Blount to Nova Scotia in search of supply. Those beds turned out to be so productive that Blount decided to put down roots. “We were bringing the mussels all the way down from Canada, so why not move the system up there?” Rocky Silva remembered asking. Silva and Steve Blount headed north to teach lobster fishermen how to catch mussels and to help a local packing company set up a mussel operation that met the standards of the Blount label.

Before joining full time, however, Todd entered Campbell wave.” But then the wave crested. By the business administration program at Boston early 1994, Blount was carrying excess capacity University, where he found himself “the only guy and it was looking like a bad year. Blount had who wanted to do traditional business.” In late already identified the soup business as a likely 1993 Todd began working at Blount one day a opportunity for growth. Willing to try anything week as he completed his MBA. He was due to to get out of the box, Ted and George set a goal come on full time after graduation in June 1994. of “becoming the low cost producer of seafood soup in our markets.” They set aside $200,000 By then, Blount had new evidence—if it needed in financing for Todd to make it happen. any more—that it had farther to go in escaping the old ups and downs. The early 1990s brought STIRRING UP INTEREST a boom in Campbell’s business. The company In the summer of 1994, Todd Blount set up the expanded accordingly to “ride the crest of the company’s first dedicated soup operation in a 46 Left: The soup-making corner at Blount during the 1990s. An innovation that came early during the soup revolution is visible at the bottom center: the use of the Cryovac® boil-in-bag designed to be frozen.

Above: A young Todd Blount under the tutelage of Ted Heidenreich, a longtime supply vendor and family friend.

corner where the conch equipment had been. Blount itself. Most of the recipes were developed A study indicating that plastic bags were superior by Todd, John Durkin and Gerry Levine, but to cans for soup storage convinced him to spend intrigued employees from sales to production most of his funds on equipment for packing might weigh in as well. “We’d spend hours on freezer bags. The bookkeepers established a particular recipe,” recalled Todd, “but then it “Division III,” and Blount was in the soup didn’t matter because no one bought it anyway.” business. A coup came quickly—in September, Todd had demonstrated the old Blount tendency national restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods to focus first on equipment and quality—events approached Blount about producing chowder and some expert help would set things straight. for retail sales under its label. As Blount struggled with soup recipes, the food That early win provided some room to move, service business was taking off. The 1980s and and Todd pushed ahead in what seemed like a 1990s brought the emergence of the two-income reasonable direction: Blount would come up family with less time for cooking and more with soup varieties that potential food service money for eating out. As the proportion of customers might purchase. In the fall he reported the American food dollar spent in restaurants to the board that “lots of interest has been stirred or other food service venues rose, tremendous up.” Unfortunately, much of it came from within opportunities arose. For one thing, with fewer

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 47 contacts to be made and no investment in shelf space required, it was much easier to get into the food service sector than retail. For another, commercial sources of Blount’s chosen entrée were in demand. By the 1990s, restaurants no longer had the time or the stove space to dedicate to soup making. If they had proven recipes, however, there was no reason that Blount could not make the soup for them. But it took lots of pavement pounding to figure that out, and the man who did it was Bob Sewall. He earned a degree from Providence College, but it was in the restaurant management and food sales industries that Sewall acquired the experience that Blount badly needed. He joined the company in May 1994. When Todd came on full time a month later, he wanted Sewall on his team. Necessity dictated, however, that Sewall spend most of his time coming up under John Durkin, selling stuffed clams, IQF bags of clams, and frozen clam broth. But during the day-to-day with customers, Sewall always turned the conversation to soup, and By the late 1990s, Bob Sewall had emerged as Blount’s sales leader. He earned his slowly he obtained the business and recipes upon stripes selling stuffed clams but soon moved into fare with wider appeal—Blount’s which the line was built. In some respects, Sewall burgeoning soup business. acknowledged, his job was the easier of the two. He would take an order, make a promise, “and Todd would figure out how to get it done.” One of the first restaurants to give Blount its business was the Chart House chain, and the team in Warren worked overtime to please. With no real culinary experience, Todd recalled, “we made about forty versions to get one to be like the customer wanted.” 48 ANOTHER NEW ENGLAND TRADITION Long before asphalt and concrete linked the towns and cities of New England, crushed clamshells were among the most pervasive of pavings for the roads and paths of seaboard districts. Blount Seafood helped keep this tradition alive, even though its shell pile was not always so greatly valued. The company made many arrangements for disposal over the years: shells were sold to stuffed clam companies or given away to anyone with a truck. Blount even leased the pile to one enterprising local for a time.

By 2001, when Blount was producing some ninety cubic yards per day, the pile had become a pilgrimage for eager New England gentrifiers who could buy a cubic yard of shells—about 1,500 pounds—for one to three dollars, depending on the season. After a few weeks of being bleached in the sun and crushed by cars, the ocean’s answer to asphalt could indeed assume an inspiring beauty. One homeowner even waxed poetic about “the way the driveway sparkles in the sun and moonlight. It looks like it’s covered with broken glass.”

In the late 1990s, clams for Campbell’s, retail seafood products but returned little in seafood, and soup were all proceeding on profit. Todd hoped to put company time and parallel tracks, and both the old and new trouble to better use. teams were managing from the top. Things were confusing. “We’ve got six people here,” GROWING GOURMET Todd remembered asking. “Who’s doing In committing Blount to becoming a “low cost what?” By the summer of 2000, things were producer of seafood soup,” Ted and George clearer. Todd, firmly in charge, in fact if not had been on the right track but wrong on two yet in title, made a bold move—he sold the counts. By 2000, Todd believed that Blount stuffed clam line. It was one of Blount’s chief should stretch in two directions: it had to

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 49 field high-cost, high-margin soups and it had to move well beyond seafood. America was once a “meat and potatoes” nation, but the national palate experienced a great diversification in last quarter of the twentieth century. As consumption of seafood spread from the coasts inland, the business grew accordingly. By the 1990s, though, it was certain that chowder and burgers would never reach parity—seafood Todd Blount (right) with chef Jens Retlev, the founder of Great Soups, Incorporated. Blount consumption had leveled off. purchased Great Soups in August 2000, putting it on the path to diversification into meat and other gourmet soups. But customers were pointing out an alternate path. Restaurants, happy with Blount’s work and hoping to consolidate accounts, started asking “you’ve done our chowder, would you please do our black bean?” By 2000 Blount was doing the black bean and more, but a new obstacle had arisen. The most popular soups— beef and chicken—could only be produced in facilities that met exacting USDA standards. Blount did not have the expertise to qualify, but there was a small producer in nearby Bristol, Rhode Island, that did. Todd had driven by a number of times. First he tried their soup. Then he asked the owners to lunch. In August 2000 he bought the company, Great Soups Incorporated. Great Soups had been founded five years earlier by a husband and wife team with restaurant experience, Jens and Marie Retlev. In the transaction, Blount acquired a few customers Blount’s expanding soup business was on full display at the 2001 International Boston Seafood and a number of recipes sold under the Show. Louise Goodman (right), then Blount’s controller, was on hand to help serve. “Cooks and Butler” brand name. Most 50 importantly, Blount obtained the expertise Warren’s soup side went into high gear. required to qualify for USDA approval. Blount turned out six new products in one week alone during the spring of 2002, That fall, Todd became president of Blount including such exotic concoctions as carrot Seafood. And in the spring of 2001 he took the ginger and Hungarian mushroom soup. company decisively beyond seafood, cooking up There could be no doubt that Blount had the first batches of chicken soups and chilies at escaped the confines of the commoditized the new USDA-approved facility in Warren. seafood business. The company’s revenues But still the company’s roots, and most of its hit $45 million in 2002. Campbell’s share revenues, were in seafood. Indeed, Blount of that was $11 million—roughly what it had put 150,000 gallons of cream and 500,000 been ten years before. pounds of potatoes into the 8 million servings And it was becoming time to build anew. of chowder it produced in the year 2000. The company had more than one hundred It was traumatic to say the least when the full-time employees dispersed between next year Legal Sea Foods, Blount’s biggest Blount, New Bedford (the former Eastern chowder customer, went out of the retail Clam Corporation), a logistics facility in business. A dejected Bob Sewall thumbed his East Providence, and the Warren plant. “We Rolodex, looking for something else to plug were bursting at the seams,” said Rocky Silva. the hole. In November 2001 he found it: “Two rooms, two shifts. There were no more Shaws, a major New England grocery chain, rooms and no more hours in the day.” That ordered both “hot to go” soups for its salad left Todd Blount no alternative but to keep bars and “Shaws Signature Series” cups for thinking outside the box. its shelves. Blount soups would soon be in front of 4.5 million Shaws customers every week. “This is a big deal for us and Blount,” acknowledged a Shaws spokesman.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 51 BLOUNT PERSONNEL WRESTLE A 20-OUNCE CUP FILLING MACHINE INTO PLACE EARLY ONE MORNING IN THE FALL OF 2005. THE MACHINE HELD THE KEY TO BLOUNT’S LATE 2000s RETAIL GROWTH.

52 52 Chapter Five: A Winning Strategy

It was the fall of 2005 and Blount Seafood From the start, Blount Seafood had been good seemed bound for the big league—if it could at taking chances. And on some occasions only grab the chance. That summer, club store the survival of a business might hinge on a igiant Costco and the West Coast grocery chain late shipment or a malfunctioning machine. Raley’s had placed “full program orders” that But this was not one of them. For even then, included fresh soups in sealed 20-ounce cups. Blount was well into a carefully planned and “These were two opportunities that were bigger steadily executed transformation. There might than we deserved at the time,” Todd Blount still be odd moments of trepidation or even later admitted. terror, but Blount had become very good at managing change. The company had produced fresh cups before, but nothing on this scale. The machinery order DOING THINGS RIGHT was placed, and the clock began to tick. By Identity is a powerful thing. It protects October, Costco and Raley’s orders were coming values and ideas that might otherwise be in—but still no cup filler and sealer. Todd Blount rashly cast aside in a moment of frustration. started paying courtesy calls to the Long Island It is something that stands still even when manufacturer bearing gifts, pizza, anything to everything else seems to be in motion. Yet, encourage haste. The equipment finally arrived sometimes, circumstances change to the point in the early hours of a morning a few days before where one realizes that what had seemed like a the deadline with much work still to be done. cornerstone of one’s identity was really just a After a long weekend spent tinkering, Blount symbol of something deeper. shipped the first order just in time. Blount Seafood’s home on the Warren As the 20-ounce cups cascaded from the line, it waterfront had always helped keep the was apparent that a change had taken place. The company’s identity tied to its roots as a family company had been in large-scale manufacture enterprise. But, with business growing, for years, but always of “product” for customers. keeping the company headquartered there Blount provided the ingredients, but someone started to seem like clinging to the past. The else made the meal. The company was still location had always demanded compromises. producing in a big way, but now it was the chef, Where industry and community once and this was fresh food for “consumers.” Todd naturally coexisted, the booming plant had usually remained cool under fire, but he had begun to try local patience, and increasingly been afraid he might miss his chance. “If it had ran up against municipal restrictions. gone any worse,” he said, “it could really have Moreover, along the way there had been made a difference.” FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 53 Above, left: Blount’s new 65,000 square foot plant at 630 Currant Road in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 2004. Right: Opening day at the Fall River plant. From left, Joanne Britland, Mike Backus, Greg Phillips, Todd Blount and Will Roff.

renovations and annexations—even the A good deal of thought went into the build- waterfront itself was extended by fill. Finally, out. Safety considerations were paramount. the reality was undeniable: Blount had run Escape valves, for example, were located on the out of room. outside of the building, so as not to endanger employees. Efficiency was also of great concern, The time had come to build a new headquarters. so employees, who were in the best position to By 2002 the search for a suitable location had know what worked and what didn’t, helped begun in earnest. Management would have with the layout. After years of compromise, preferred to remain in Rhode Island, but nothing it was good to start fresh. As John Cavanagh, fit. A property that could work, however, was only the recently hired director of engineering, put a dozen miles distant, in an industrial park on the it, “it gives you the opportunity to do things northern edge of Fall River, Massachusetts. A right in all areas.” In that respect, although 45,000-square-foot facility was already on site, and the building lacked the old waterfront mill’s there was plenty of surrounding land that would historic charm, its design was a reflection of accommodate expansion. In the summer of 2003, Blount’s core values. after a year of negotiations, Blount completed its acquisition, and soon built a 20,000-square-foot As production started up at the Fall River addition to the existing building. The purchase plant, there were many more things to get of new equipment brought the company’s total right. Rather than two kinds of clams and a investment in its new headquarters to $12 million. handful of seafood products, Blount was now

54 A link with the past. When the executive offices were built out at Fall River, the company’s original Whitecap logo was installed in a lobby mosaic.

keeping track of a multiplicity of raw materials were all moved there. As Todd’s attention and hundreds of recipes. As customers turned to Fall River, Steve Blount lent a critical multiplied, mere “shipping” turned into sense of continuity to Warren, where the old “logistics.” Through the early 2000s, Todd “family firm” culture still hung on. Things Blount tracked recipes and purchase of raw were inevitably different in Fall River which materials in a Microsoft Access database became—in the estimation of Phil Pitzer, who that he had designed himself. Information moved from the back office in Warren to the technology grew an order of magnitude after head of information technology at Fall River— the move to Fall River. “more corporate in culture.” Perhaps also inevitably, although managers and employees Warren now enjoyed some much-needed continued to draw deeply upon Christian breathing room, but things hardly slowed down ideals, the company’s formerly pronounced there either. Blount’s New Bedford operations, piety became more subdued. including production of breaded products,

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 55 Blount headed into 2005 with a brand-new plant specifically geared to produce frozen soup for the food service customers that had fueled the soup breakout. And there was room for the processes and people required to keep up with the changes ahead. CULINARY REVOLUTION In the late 1990s, product development was a “seat of the pants” affair—something to be expected perhaps from a family firm. Jens Retlev brought a more culinary approach, but his experience did not prepare him to scale up the test kitchen as Blount required, and he moved on in 2004.

Despite his youth, William Bigelow had substantial training in food William Bigelow, however, was prepared for the science before heading up Blount’s product development team. challenge. Bigelow had done undergraduate work in nutrition and earned a master’s degree in food science. Upon joining Blount in 2002, he undertook the technical side of product development: drawing up production specifications, nutritional standards, and ingredient statements. But Blount was now less in the business of making product and more in the business of making food—high-quality food at that. So there was bound to be as much art as science to product development. That side of the equation was tackled by a chef who started with Blount in 2003. Chefs can be demanding at best and dictatorial at worst, but Jeff Wirtz Scaling up. A worker adds ingredients to a 200 to 300 gallon displayed a temperament well suited to what batch of soup on the Fall River production floor.

56 In the Blount test kitchen, executive chef Jeff Wirtz chops celery in the foreground, while research and development chef Jacob Kim adds ingredients to a steam cooker.

Bob Sewall dubbed Blount’s “culinary think industry standard, but it still took a lot of tank.” He was confident enough to prepare scaling up to produce two-hundred-gallon to dishes before clients and their house chefs, three-hundred-gallon production batches. accommodating enough to take their direction, and patient enough to duplicate their recipes. Bigelow and Wirtz formed a team that knew how to persevere and maintain a sense of humor. There was more to it, of course, than merely Explaining to a reporter that they averaged tearing out pages from a client cookbook. about fifteen attempts in creating a recipe, Wirtz Flavor, consistency, and durability all had to mused that “I don’t think there’s ever been a be made to exceed home cooking standards product developed in one try.” “Not that was if a product was to survive freezing, storage, any good, at least,” interjected Bigelow. transportation, and several hours on a restaurant steam table. And, as a gourmet As early as the summer of 2004, the culinary producer, Blount had to do it without recourse think tank had produced some one hundred to the stabilizers and other additives that low- soup recipes, but product development work cost producers commonly included. Blount did not always stop there. That same year, for cooked its fare in quantities about half the the D’Angelo Sandwich Shops, a chain with two

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 57 PERSONIFICATION AND INSPIRATION Once, Blount Seafood had been personified by its hard-charging founder. But if there is a public face of Blount Fine Foods today, it is neither fisherman nor family member but a youthful executive chef named Jeff Wirtz featured prominently on the website. Growing up in Norfolk, Massachusetts, in a two-wage-earner family, Wirtz began cooking to fill in for his folks. He earned a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, where such celebrated chefs as Emeril Lagasse have studied.

Wirtz was twenty-seven years old when he joined Jens Retlev at the developing “culinary think tank” in Warren. Within two years he was firmly in charge of the kitchen and training his own assistants. Wirtz’s ability to duplicate and scale up recipes made the difference for Blount’s soup division, but from the beginning he has also pioneered on his own, grounding recipes in traditional flavors and textures while giving a culinary nod to contemporary tastes. In 2005 Wirtz even took his seafood risotto recipe before the crowd and the cameras at the Great American Seafood Cookoff in New Orleans. Today, Wirtz’s recipes are much easier to find—on the Blount Fine Foods website.

hundred franchises, not only did Blount produce particular, now being sourced from across the the right recipe within a week, but it also helped globe, required a great deal of attention for implement a customer sampling program. comparatively little reward. “We had been trying to do all things for all people,” concluded While the product development team Todd Blount. focused closely on producing good food well, the management team dealt with a There were consequences for the bottom host of distractions. As Blount built up its line. With clam production for Campbell’s soup capabilities, more traditional products down 25 percent, the year 2005 was a tough proliferated. By mid-decade the company one. That September, the management team was marketing breaded scallops, crab cakes, made some tough decisions. Blount’s historic littleneck clams, and many others in six business came in for scrutiny. With tight separate divisions. The seafood specialties in limits on supply and a fully tapped market, it

58 New England Clam Chowder, Blount’s first entry into the high-end soup market, remained a best seller into the 2000s.

was decided that the clam business, although SOUP COMES OF AGE providing welcomed profits for now, was likely Management emerged from its fall 2005 to be a problematic earner in the long run. meeting with a simple strategic plan: cut the The soup business, in contrast, seemed poised distractions and concentrate on what worked. for long-term profitability. Perhaps thinking The next year Blount sold its entire imported of the as-yet-unfilled orders from Raley’s seafood line—only clams and breaded clams and Costco, Todd Blount argued that more remained. Those familiar with the up-and- resources would be required to build up the down trajectory that the seafood products had business. He also believed that the building displayed ever since Blount sold its first conch had to be done quickly. The gourmet soup understood the essentials of the plan. But sector might not expand indefinitely. When there was one unanticipated detail that would it slowed, the biggest players would own the lead to lots more change. market, and Todd hoped Blount would be one The Raley’s and Costco opportunities were, of them. in Todd’s words, “bigger than we deserved”

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 59 because the mechanism that built the soup business was geared toward food service. The early fruitless experiments in Warren had confirmed that a company with no reputation in soup could hardly expect to cook up its own recipes and successfully sell them retail. There had been some small attempts, most notably with a “Signature Soups” line sold under the Blount Seafood brand name in the mid-2000s, but the future still seemed to be in food service. The Costco and Raley’s business was for store brands, but they compelled Blount to A new corporate name, reflecting a wider variety of high-quality foods, was registered jump headfirst into technology required for with the state of Rhode Island on December 19, 2007. retail—equipment for packaging small, fresh portions rather than four-pound frozen bags. The big break into retail came in 2008 when old customer Legal Sea Foods and new client Panera Bread licensed Blount to produce and sell their house soups to club stores. The latter agreement in particular “was a tremendous lift,” said Bob Sewall. “Panera looked at fifteen soup companies and chose us.” By then, Blount had taken another decisive step in the new direction. Direct ventures into retail soups were complicated by the corporate name: only the most adventurous consumer could be expected to buy “Blount Seafood Perhaps Blount’s biggest break into retail came in 2008, when the company beat Beef Chili.” So Blount brought on marketing out fifteen competitors to produce Panera soups for marketing in club stores. director David Vittorio to reconfigure the company’s Internet, print, and media presence. In late 2007 Todd launched a new corporate name and brand: Blount Fine Foods. The nomenclature underscored a change that

60 $120,000,000

$100,000,000

$80,000,000

$60,000,000

$40,000,000 Soup & All Other Sales

$20,000,000

Clam Meat Sales

$0 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 As this chart indicates, after 2000 Blount’s soup business decisively outpaced clam production, fueling a decade’s worth of growth and transforming the company. had gradually developed over time. In Fall steady and sustainable business long sought River, Blount had grown into something much by management. From 2008 to 2009, during larger and very different from the shellfish the steepest economic downturn since the processor of the past. Even still, Blount did Great Depression, Blount’s revenues rose not stray too far from its old specialty. The nearly 13 percent. In fact, a plunge in clam- plant in Warren stayed true to tradition and related revenues was more than overcome by remained proud of its work, even retaining the the strong performance of the soup line, which old Blount Seafood name on the building. And grew nearly 27 percent. The Panera and Legal in early 2009 Todd Blount went to the Boston Seafood business had played a strong part Seafood show to roll out the new Blount brand in this performance, for although strapped of gourmet soups for the retail market: New Americans may have forgone a night out, they England clam chowder figured heavily in what still had an inclination for restaurant-quality Todd called the company’s “conscious effort to food. After five years of focusing on it, the upgrade America’s soup experience.” “grow the soups” plan was paying off. By then it seemed that Blount had found the Between 2003 and 2010 Blount’s business

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 61 seemed to await in sauces, spreads, and dips, which were usually sold by the same distributors who handled soups. By 2010 Blount was already producing dips under the Panera name. What are called “wet” salads, such as chicken and pasta salads, also represented an exciting way forward, not least because many of these offerings, such as a new lobster salad, drew on Blount’s seafood expertise. Blount also found itself in a position to grow through new acquisitions that would build on strengths, overcome weaknesses, and serve As Blount’s “grow the soups” strategy paid off, in 2010 the Fall River plant was doubled in size. more customers. In 2011 Blount purchased almost doubled in size, with revenues reaching Neco Foods LLC, a Florida firm with expertise upwards of $94 million. The work force had in high-quality wet processed foods. In 2008 more than doubled, with two hundred full-time Neco had reorganized and hired new culinary and one hundred seasonal employees on the talent in a bid to become a provider of fine rolls. The Fall River plant was already reaching prepared foods, including soups. Becoming capacity. When Blount originally purchased part of the Blount family seemed like the the property there in 2003, it had anticipated next step forward. The sale was completed in an eventual expansion, and acquired an August, and Neco became Neco Fine Foods. adjacent property as well. Nobody, though, had For Blount, having Neco on board represented expected expansion to happen so soon. In early an opportunity to gain access Neco’s experience 2010 construction began. By the end of the in dips and spreads, as well as a new toehold in year the plant was more than doubled in size markets in the southeastern United States. to 108,000 square feet, at a cost of $16 million. The new customers and products that came It was a “green” design in tune with the times, with the Neco acquisition led to further growth, including rooftop solar panels, energy-efficient but it soon became clear that it would not be doors and lighting, and a cost-effective central economical to maintain Neco’s inadequate refrigeration system. leased facilities in Florida. In March 2012 Meanwhile, Blount had begun to look at entirely the difficult decision was made to close it. new areas for growth. Promising opportunities Some of the staff moved to new jobs in New

62 THE MARKET AND THE COMPANY STORE The purchase of Great Soups, Incorporated and the Cooks and Butler brand was, perhaps, the decision that led most directly to the development of Blount Fine Foods—a first step toward something big. But it was also a step toward something smaller, although equally close to the heart of Blount. Great Soups fans, it turned out, were accustomed to stopping by Bristol for their favorite varieties. “About a day after we closed down the Cooks and Butler store, they started calling us to buy soup,” Todd Blount remembered. Since Blount sold only four-bag cases to its food service and restaurant customers, there were always a few odd bags around for retail.

In May 2001, Blount opened its first “Company Store” on Water Street in Warren. Eventually Blount bought Hall’s, a small local seafood shop, and rechristened the Water Street store as the “Blount Market.” By the mid-2000s, take-out sandwiches and soups were also available at Blount “Clam Shacks” in Warren, Riverside and Fall River—the latter shares quarters with Blount’s second Company Store.

England, while Blount worked to find new jobs new space, an expanded product line, new in the area for those who could not make the acquisitions, and a burgeoning soup business, move. Meanwhile, in December 2011, Blount Blount Fine Foods was well equipped to keep acquired the Cape Cod Chowder Company growing through the second decade of the new of nearby Marion, Massachusetts, moving its century. Of course, rapid growth had its own chowder business to the Warren plant, and its hazards. The question now was whether Blount seafood dips and spreads to Fall River. Some of could keep making the right choices to take these employees also joined the Blount team. advantage of the opportunities that awaited, while holding onto the principles that had The tide of demand for premium quality fresh made it successful in the first place. foods was showing no signs of ebbing. With

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 63 BLOUNT’S ANNUAL CLAMBAKE TRADITION IS ONE OF THE MANY WAYS THE COMPANY CONTINUES TO DRAW ON ITS SEAFOOD HERITAGE.

64 Chapter Six: Constant Innovation

For more than 130 years, a Blount had been The first priority was to find Blount’s making a living from the sea. By 2011, though, traditional business a good home. Sea Watch it was abundantly clear that there were no International, based in Easton, Maryland, was flonger any prospects for growth in the Blount the largest processor of clams in the world. company’s traditional clam business. Demand Its scale of operations made it the only U.S.- remained flat, and supplies were as strained based company capable of competing in the as ever. Few consumers were willing to pay thoroughly commodified global seafood premiums for high quality, which meant profits market. Moreover, since the 1990s, Sea Watch could only be made on the margin. So, as had been majority owned by the Truexes, Blount’s premium soup business kept growing the same clam fishing family that had been and generating value, it made little sense to friends and trusted suppliers of Blount since keep devoting resources to processing clams. the 1970s. For Blount, knowing the priority The time had come to bid a fond farewell. Sea Watch placed on safety, efficiency, and quality made the decision to sell a little easier. The transaction was completed on September 6, 2011. At the same time, Blount parted ways with some of its oldest customers, including, after sixty-four years, Campbell’s. Saying goodbye, though, did not diminish Blount’s commitment to its heritage. For instance, abandoning the plant in Warren remained out of the question. The company instead dedicated the facility to clam chowder production, and, finding the title unclaimed, styled it the World Headquarters of Clam

After Blount sold its clam processing business, it transformed the Warren plant into the World Headquarters of Clam Chowder.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 65 business, the only thing not subject to change was its dedication to quality. This was not just a point of pride; it was the cornerstone of the company’s ongoing success. Blount’s relatively small-scale production allowed it to be creative with recipes and to enhance quality, which added an abundance of value to the Blount’s Clam Shacks gave the Chowder. It was a fitting moniker, as Blount final product. At the same time, Blount did company a visible presence was soon making over seventy-five varieties of not have the facilities to produce soup in the locally, as well as another link quantities and at the cost needed to compete to its seafood past. the New England staple there. The company also remained committed to its chain of with the largest, less expensive brands. One of Blount Clam Shacks. The stores were not the reasons why Blount’s soup business never a part of Blount’s core business—they were sparked conflicts with Campbell’s was that the simply another satisfying way of keeping the consumers who sought out fresh, top-quality company’s past tied to its future. soups were, by and large, not the same as those who bought canned soups. So, for Blount, it A VALUED ASSET was quality or nothing. If the old Blount clam business had reflected If quality was the one constant in the winning mid-twentieth-century aspirations to stability, equation, the variables were harder to pin the new soup business capitalized on the down. The company’s new ventures into salads early twenty-first century’s constantly evolving and dips were soon found to be unworkable. cultural and economic landscape. Todd Although these items had originally seemed Blount had always known that facing up to like an obvious complement to Blount’s soup that landscape’s challenges was going to be the business, the fact that the ingredients were company’s reality. As he remarked in 1996, mixed cold meant these product lines were when he gave a speech honoring Blount’s subject to entirely different quality assurance fiftieth anniversary, he did not know if, fifty and regulatory compliance procedures. It years hence, “we will be processing clams or proved too difficult to integrate production of Cocoa Krispies.” The only thing that was dips and salads with existing operations, and certain was, “Our performance will be defined products in these categories had to be phased by how well we manage change.” Over the next out. “We were never going to hit production two decades he was proven right. efficiencies,” Todd Blount admitted. But, As Blount searched for new ways to develop its because the company understood the nature

66 Blount’s expertise in product of measured risk taking, it was able to move not just to meet present demands, but also to development helped its soups, on before too many losses accrued, and it work with customers to create tomorrow’s big under a variety of labels, helped its customers find new suppliers for the sellers. To reinforce this advantage, Blount become more available in grocery stores nationwide. discontinued products. began to assign a culinary staff member to each of its sales teams, so that customers could Meanwhile, the opportunities in soup consult a trusted expert on demand. As Bob continued to multiply—the trick was to take Sewall put it, “If we’re just shipping you soup, advantage. The new class of consumers of we’re not interested. We have to be a resource, premium food that emerged in the 1990s and an asset to our customers.” 2000s was not content with higher quality. They were seeking an ever-wider variety of Back in Fall River, the members of William flavors, and demanding a full range of healthy Bigelow’s research and development team options. Restaurants and retailers had to pay worked hard to satisfy the company’s careful attention to new food trends to compete increasingly complex commitments. A big part for business. Blount soon realized that one of of Blount’s business continued to be developing its crucial advantages was that it had the ability proprietary recipes for Panera and Legal Sea

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 67 Foods, as well as private-label products for retailers nationwide. Bigelow’s team also was responsible for putting great tastes behind Blount’s own label. Blount-brand soups remained popular with restaurants and food service providers, and were now reaching more and more consumers through club stores and supermarkets. Blount was soon producing over Blount’s research and development team members take 800 distinct products, each carefully tailored not only for flavor, but to pride in creating recipes that satisfy consumers’ search maintain its quality through production, storage, transportation, sale, for new ways of eating well. Left to right: Vilija Bonda, and preparation. Benjamin Murray, Robin Leatherwood, Jeff Wirtz, William Bigelow, Matt Yusen, Thomas Gervasi, and Caitlin Sewall. As Blount’s marketing began to revolve as much around its culinary expertise as its specific products, the company began to engage outsiders to share in this integrated vision. In early 2014 the company inaugurated a partnership with nearby Johnson & Wales University, which was renowned for its culinary arts program. Marketing students taking part in an “Ad Lab” seminar had the chance to develop social media strategies to support the launch of new Blount soups. Several months later, Blount hosted its first-ever “Culinary Summit” in Newport, Rhode Island. Bringing together leaders in the premium food industry was an opportunity to exchange ideas on culinary trends and product development, and, of course, to trumpet Blount products and the company’s approach to business. THE CULINARY CHALLENGE By 2010 the new culinary culture emphasizing healthier and more flavorful ingredients had become thoroughly mainstream. Chefs and connoisseurs were emboldened to introduce new flavors to the nation, and people were ready to give them a try. This was the era of discerning diners proudly sharing photos of their meals on social media, and attentively following new trends in cuisine like never before. And, increasingly, shoppers expected to find the kind of foods they were eating at restaurants on grocery store shelves. Blount heavily promoted its expertise in organic fresh foods. Here chefs Thomas Gervasi and Benjamin Murray pose with For food producers, the key was to understand how they could best serve a few of Blount’s organic soups at the National Restaurant this culture. Some, for instance, were in a good position to feed the Association’s 2014 show. 68 THE COMPLETE PACKAGE Not all of Blount’s research and development was directed toward creating new recipes. Packaging was also a major component. Blount’s Panera-brand soups and sides, for instance, were soon being placed in containers with an eye-catching new shape. As William Bigelow explained, “Packaging is what draws the consumer over. You kind of eat with your eyes, so if you see it, you’ll buy it.” Another important project was helping to develop new “cool rip” technology, which keeps the packaging cool even as its contents are heated in a microwave.

One of the biggest goals was to create smaller packages, and to integrate them seamlessly into production operations. Sixteen-ounce and ten-ounce containers catered to consumers who were pressed for time, but still looking for a good meal. In fact, for younger consumers, the very idea of a meal was coming into flux. The “millennial” generation was enthusiastic about fresh prepared foods, and often snacked throughout the day instead of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Developing smaller container sizes was part and parcel of marketing to new tastes and lifestyles.

latest fads, but most could not afford to change to begin sourcing certified organic ingredients. product lines so quickly. Blount’s research and development team understood it was important Blount also quickly realized that emphasizing to identify the trends that were likely to endure, its organic offerings was a good way to build and to explore their culinary possibilities. its own brand. Some consumers of organic One trend that had already proved its staying products bought them out of a strong conviction power was the organic food movement. Blount in the foods’ specific environmental and health had avoided using artificial ingredients and benefits. For many more, though, the organic preservatives whenever possible, simply because label was simply a shorthand for eating well. As maintaining a “clean label” was a good way to Bigelow observed, “People want transparency maintain good flavor. So, it was natural step in their food, from no preservatives and short

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 69 the lookout for products that could be easily adapted to those diets. This approach ensured that Blount did not lose sight of the most important thing. A recipe, Bigelow reflected, “could have twenty grams of protein and all the Hearty soups, such as the Panera-brand broccoli and cheddar soup, have sold consistently well. essential fatty acids you need for a day, but if it tastes bad you’re never going to sell it again.” ingredient decks they understand, all the way to sustainability, from packaging to locally Another big challenge was choosing exactly which sourced ingredients.” If consumers began to popular tastes to incorporate into new products. associate these qualities with the Blount line One important trend was that consumers were of organics, that would benefit the brand as a eager to move beyond flavors and textures that whole. At the same time, Blount gained valuable they associated with mass production, and to experience in producing and selling organic embrace a more “artisan” or “hand-crafted” foods, which it could tout to its customers. “We approach to cuisine. Panera, the owner of have become the organics expert in fresh foods,” Blount’s biggest licensed brand, had already Sewall boasted. shown with its national chain of bakery-cafés that an artisanal style could be brought to a broad If organics were a good way to begin to address public. Blount similarly found that consumers consumer interest in healthy eating, taking could find a hand-crafted taste in well-made full advantage of that interest was a more soups with ingredients selected for their robust complex task. Different consumers could have flavor. Then there were the ingredients of the vastly different ideas about what constituted moment. Kale, once an unknown vegetable, was a healthy meal. Many, of course, remained selling extremely well, and made for great-tasting interested in low-fat options. Others, equally soup. Yet, an eye always had to be kept on the health conscious, were more concerned with future. For instance, as the public stood poised how genuine the ingredients in their food to unlock the hidden potential in cauliflower, were, demanding, for instance, real cream even Blount was ready to show them what it could do if it was high in calories. The endless parade for their soups. of diet trends and fads could prove particularly daunting to address. Rather than designing Of course, for all the shifts in tastes brought entirely new lines of products around particular about by the new culinary culture, some diets, such as regimens that are gluten free truths were eternal. Among these was that or high in protein, Blount’s team kept on soup is a comfort food. Year in and year out,

70 Blount’s sides and breakfast foods quickly found a natural place alongside the company’s soups. hearty soups, such as broccoli cheddar and a new ancient-grain oatmeal. Nobody could clam chowder, continued to sell briskly, as know whether these products would ever did Blount’s growing variety of chilies, stews, become soup’s equal on the production lines. and gumbos. Appreciation for Blount’s lobster But, with Blount’s flagship business having bisque was such that the company became the grown up from nothing in only twenty years, nation’s leading producer of the seafood classic. the company was not about to set limits. In 2013, with an excellent handle on premium A FIRST-CLASS OPERATION soups, Blount once again began exploring new avenues for growth. Having learned that cold- Blount’s ability to develop new products mixed salads and dips were not in the cards, the of consistently high quality led to a steady company looked for opportunities in foods that expansion in business. By 2011 the company were mixed hot, like its soups. It introduced had passed $100 million in soup sales, a side dishes such as macaroni and cheese, mark that would double to more than $200 collard greens, creamed kale and spinach, million by 2015. In 2012, to manage the butternut squash, and mashed sweet potatoes. company’s increasingly complex finances, it Breakfast foods also seemed to represent a vast hired Mike Mistrot to serve as chief financial new frontier, which Blount ventured into with officer. Meanwhile, with the rapid expansion

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 71 side dishes. The company’s most spectacular investments augmented its existing strength in controlling the temperature of its production process, a prerequisite for preserving quality. Between 2011 and 2014, Blount installed two large-scale chillers, which ferried packages of hot foods around a giant spiral through sprays of frigid water, bringing them rapidly down to refrigeration temperature. The plant also vastly expanded its on-site freezer and cooler storage capacity, reducing the need to shuttle raw ingredients and finished products to and from Production planner Deb Thornhill scrutinizes Blount’s production schedule. The company’s ever- off-site storage facilities. increasing variety of products created a complex challenge for those managing production operations. Automation also became more prevalent at Fall River. Blount had used automatic filling and in both the number of products and the labeling machines for decades, but now robotic volume of food being produced, the company’s hands could be found expertly placing finished production operations had to grow increasingly units into boxes for shipping. Jonathan Arena, sophisticated to meet the burden. Blount’s vice president of operations, observed, “What responsiveness to shifting customer needs we’re finding is that these pieces of equipment had become its hallmark, but its reputation allow us to extend ourselves to high speeds.” depended more than ever on the ability to With plant expansion creating more work all deliver on its promises. around, increased automation left employees free to take on tasks where their skills could To keep Blount’s operations up to the be used to best advantage. “We don’t normally challenge, the company reinvested roughly $10 go toward automation to eliminate people,” million each year into new equipment and Arena explained. “We go toward automation upgrades. As new space from the 2011 addition to keep higher efficiency levels.” to the Fall River building became available, the company added new production and Automation of production scheduling was packaging lines to handle larger volumes. Plans increasingly vital in keeping the plants running were made to buy machines specially designed smoothly. There were hundreds of recipes to to handle the larger solids found in Blount’s prepare in varying quantities, using hundreds of

72 SAFETY AND QUALITY FIRST Even as operations became more sophisticated, Blount’s safety, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance measures became more elaborate. Employees were trained in proper procedures in brief but frequent meetings, and were closely supervised to ensure those procedures were assiduously followed.

For Blount’s products to pass muster, they were subjected to inspection at all stages of production and transportation. The temperature of perishables in transport had to be continually monitored. Products were tested all along the production line, not only to guard against contamination, but to ensure they met specifications for flavor, color, texture, and consistency. Equipment had to be thoroughly cleaned and inspected between production runs to keep regulated allergens used in certain products strictly isolated from allergen-free products.

All safety and quality controls had to be meticulously documented. In 2010 Blount reached a milestone in its efforts by achieving Safe Quality Food (SQF) Level 2 certification. The company ultimately tripled the size of its quality assurance team to about thirty members, and hired Todd Brown (right) in 2013 to serve as vice president for food safety and quality. An expert in quality assurance with thirty-five years of experience in the food production industry, Brown had the capability to ensure that as the range of Blount’s products and the scale of its operations grew, the company’s safety and quality standards became ever more rigorous.

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 73 ingredients, all to be shipped at different times and in different quantities to customers across the nation. It was no trivial matter to decide which products to produce when, where to store them, and how to transport the finished products. Fortunately, mathematicians and computer scientists had been studying these kinds of problems for decades. Dennis Bergeron, Capital investment kept products moving efficiently from preparation who joined Blount from food services giant Aramark in 2009, had the skill to packaging to shipment. set and food industry background to develop solutions for the company’s problems in production scheduling, inventory control, and logistics. Even as Blount upgraded its machinery and operations, its plants would not have been able to function without a dedicated and capable workforce. One of the greatest challenges proved to be coping with the fact that demand for soup rises dramatically in the winter. By 2015 this meant that the company’s workforce had to swell from about 300 to about 400 employees during peak season. Blount’s human resources staff, led by Ronnie King, worked year-round to manage these fluctuations, and to make sure that dedicated temporary workers could be found. Fortunately, many workers had jobs in such areas as Information technology helped Blount keep on a tight production landscaping during the warmer months, making them available to help schedule, down to the minute. make soup as the New England weather turned cold. Meanwhile, Blount increased its investment in its permanent workforce. A newly instituted Learning and Development program helped employees develop their skills, acquire certifications, and grow within the company. Arena recalled, “One thing that we learned is that you’re only as good as the people working for you, and the better you can develop them, train them, engage them, get them thinking about being a participant in the growth of the company … that makes a big difference.” A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS Blount’s thriving soup business was built from the simple premise that the company could do well by bringing high-quality food to as many people as possible. For a long time, the focus was on simply getting that Ronnie King, senior director of human resources, leads a new- job done right. But, as the new business matured, the work of the various employee orientation.

74 Blount’s success has been built from many ingredients— literally and figuratively.

parts of the company began to harmonize in new got a part of the answer, and when we come ways. Sales staff began to market the company’s together we make really good decisions—and research and development capabilities. we’re able to make quick decisions.” With Research and development created products senior staff increasingly making important that operations could produce efficiently and decisions among themselves, and with effectively. Human resources hired employees employees at all levels seeing how the company with the skills that operations needed, and in worked together as a whole, there was a new the numbers necessary to meet demand. freedom to think about the bigger picture. “We’re not so exclusively focused on today’s As all the parts of the business began to job,” Blount reflected. “We’re thinking about work in unison, that made it easier to do the planning in the next year.” things necessary to grow, and to become more sophisticated. As Todd Blount explained, “No Good planning was helping Blount to sustain its one person’s got all the answers. Everybody’s rate of growth year after year, to the point that,

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 75 Blount’s executive team in 2014. even as it grew into its 2011 plant expansion, important, too. New Englanders are famously Left to right: Todd Blount, president; trends showed it was already time to think about local in their outlook, and, even though Fall William Bigelow, vice president of business development—research another. The company drew up plans to double River was only about twenty minutes from and development; Jonathan Arena, the size of its footprint in Fall River by the Warren, it was a whole other world for Blount. vice president of operations; Todd summer of 2016. Because the only land left on the The company’s Soup Store and Clam Shack Brown, vice president of food safety property was classified as wetlands, arrangements there helped create local recognition for the and quality assurance; Mike Mistrot, had to be made in conjunction with local Blount name, but the company was eager to chief financial officer; and Bob Sewall, executive vice president of government officials to recreate those wetlands reach out in other ways as well. It donated sales and marketing on nearby property, which Blount acquired for soup to homeless shelters, to youth group the purpose. Once the permits were issued, and school fundraising campaigns, and to a Blount was free to begin construction, using local veterans organization. Soon the Blount many of the same green building techniques that team got to know, and began to support, the it had applied to its existing facility. Meanwhile, organizers of other local charity organizations the company was also thinking about growing and events. Food was also a big part of Blount through acquisition, or by building a plant in becoming known as a great place to work, another part of the country. which helped attract dedicated new members of the Blount team. As Ronnie King put it, Of course, becoming more deeply integrated “Manufacturing is an environment that if you into the local community of Fall River was 76 In 2015 Blount prepared to love it, you love it. You come to work, and at his zeal for new ventures. Throughout his life, his expand its Fall River plant into the the end of the day you can see the results of attention dwelt as much on trains and airplanes undeveloped property behind it. your actions. And when the results of your as on boats harvesting the ocean’s bounty. Before construction could begin, actions are putting delicious food in people’s plans had to be approved to recreate It was left to Nelson’s friend Fred Richardson the wetlands located on the site on bellies, it feels really good.” nearby land. to keep a steady hand on the tiller. In their FOUR LEADERS, FOUR COMPANIES youth, partly out of the duty of friendship, Fred Over the long arc of its history, Blount Fine authored the book about railroads that Nelson Foods is not so much the story of one company, had aspired to write. And, in many ways, Fred was but rather of four, typified by each of its four key also the “author” of Blount Seafood in the 1950s leaders. Nelson Blount was an entrepreneurial and 1960s. He was the one who built it into a spirit through and through. Howard Huftalen Rhode Island institution and a steadfast member recalled that he was “always going and getting of the Campbell’s family. Fred Richardson died something else started.” Given his family in April 2007, but he lived long enough to see the background it was perhaps inevitable that he company become something he himself could not strove to make a living from the sea. But it was have imagined. Never evincing concern or regret, not saltwater that ran through his veins—it was he always asked in his later years about how the change. Blount Seafood was only one product of “new” businesses were doing, and was proud to

FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 77 Good food has always been the heart of Blount. Employees and their families line up at the annual clambake. learn of their success. it to build the family business into something that was bigger and stronger than it had ever Trained as an engineer, Ted Blount worked been. This sort of change, it turned out, could hard to keep the operations of the family take on a life of its own, leading the way for firm up to date and running smoothly, even those who were willing to listen to its lessons. as his leadership strategies sowed the seeds As Blount Fine Foods continued to grow and for something new. He was eager to find prosper in the twenty-first century, everyone better ways of doing things, from developing at the company was eager to see where change new products to installing new machines. would lead them next. He explored possibilities for new ventures, and saw the importance of finding new customers. He was a teacher, showing the management team not just the potential of Blount’s existing business, but also what the company could aspire to become. The transformation of Blount Seafood into Blount Fine Foods was a direct product of a zest for change that Todd Blount shared with his grandfather. But, where Nelson had always wanted to start new things from scratch, Todd channeled that spirit into a vision that was his own. His goal was to harness change, and use

78 FROM SEA TO SOUP: THE EVOLUTION OF BLOUNT FINE FOODS 79 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This history represents the combined efforts of many people who, despite many other obligations, invested time, energy and patience in helping to capture the Blount Fine Foods story. Jonathan Arena, William Bigelow, Ruth Blount, Steve Blount, Ted Blount, Todd Blount, Howard Huftalen, Ronnie King, Phil Pitzer, George Richardson, Bob Sewall and Rocky Silva all shared recollections and insights gained over years of experience at Blount. Rocky Silva also provided a tour of the Warren Plant while John Cavanagh hosted a tour of the Fall River facility. Phil Pitzer made Blount’s vast collection of digital images available, and Todd and Ted Blount provided thoughtful edits to the manuscript. Graphcom Creative pulled the words and pictures together into a coherent and compelling volume. Sarah Arguin, David Vittorio, and Rachael Blount Girard designed the cover. Kenneth Durr and William Thomas at History Associates Incorporated researched and wrote the manuscript and selected and captioned the images. Gail Matthews and Vanessa Lide, also at History Associates, painstakingly proofed every sentence. For Blount Fine Foods, Andrea Walker managed the project with patience and good humor from start to finish. PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS

Library of Congress, 4 (top) Boston Public Library, 4 (bottom) Campbell’s Soup Company, 14 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, 3, 23 All other photographs and illustrations courtesy of Blount Fine Foods

80