Lund’s Fisheries has hired four new senior executives and two additional sales and marketing staff, with an eye to growing sales of its Lund’s Fisheries and Sea Legend brands in the retail and food service markets, the company said this week.
“These new hires, in our sales, cold storage/logistics and quality assurance departments, are key to the company’s focus on continued growth of its production capacity and sales of innovative seafood products in the retail and food service sectors,” said Wayne Reichle, president of Lund’s, based in Cape May, N.J.
Joining the company are Mark Fratiello as its new director of sales and marketing; Mike Wallace and John Fee as national business development managers; Federico Sehringer as compliance officer and quality assurance director; Joshua Farinella as director of compliance and quality assurance; and Gene Taormina as general manager at Shoreline Freezers, located in Bridgeton, N.J.
Fratiello comes to Lund’s with an extensive sales background, including 10 years of experience in seafood sales and marketing. He will lead Lund’s sales team, of Jeff Miller, Mike Wallace, Rick Marino and John Fee, to grow their fresh and frozen scallop, calamari, shrimp, finfish and value-added lines, working with a national broker to drive national sales to broadline distributors, restaurants, wholesale distributors, and retail.
“I’m excited to be with a company that’s looking to expand its reach in volume, sales channels, and infrastructure,” said Fratiello. “It’s great to get in on the ground floor to help build the brands and create new opportunities for the company to grow. Lund’s investments in vessels and shoreside infrastructure provide an incredible foundation to build successful national seafood programs and bring consumers direct to the source.”
With its Lund’s Fisheries, Seafood Market and Sea Legend brands, the company is a leading provider of sustainable, wild-caught sea scallops, calamari and harvesting over 75 million pounds of seafood during 2020. Lund’s operates production facilities in New Jersey, Massachusetts and California, 19 fishing vessels owned directly by the principals of the company and works with many independent owner-operator vessels.
Lund’s Atlantic sea scallops and East Coast squid fisheries are certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, which is an important selling point for consumers in a market increasingly interested in sustainability. Lund’s also is one of just a few domestic processors that clean calamari domestically, and offers customers products that have been both caught and processed in the U.S.
“Onboarding a national broker with a company that has more than 65 years of vertically integrated seafood experience is an exciting time in my career and a great opportunity to achieve Lund’s Fisheries strategic goals,” said Mike Wallace.
“I am happy to be associated with Lund’s, a company focused on sustainable fishing practices and centrally located in the Mid-Atlantic and geared towards producing the highest quality seafood for the food service industry,” said John Fee.
Sehringer and Farinella will be part of an expanded quality assurance team, where they will ensure that the products processed at the company's SQF-certified facilities continue to meet all regulations and standards, and maintain high quality of consumer products. Both bring years of experience in quality control to Lund’s.
Sehringer has 18 years of food safety and quality control, both in the U.S. and Argentina. Farinella has 14 years of experience in several quality assurance roles.
“I’ve worked in retail, storage and distribution, and production. I’m glad to have the opportunity to work with a company that is able to do all of these things under one roof,” said Sehringer.
“I’m ready to help the company take things to the next level,” said Farinella. “We have a strong foundation and reputation for quality to build on, and the right building blocks for continued success.”
Despite the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic during 2020, Lund’s Fisheries has continued investing in growing shoreside infrastructure to support sustainable fisheries, fishing vessels, and generational relationships with fishing families home-ported in Cape May, New Jersey. In mid-2021 the company plans to break ground on a new 90,000 square-foot cold and dry storage addition to its Shoreline Freezers facility. The project will also add additional processing space to help growth in sales.
“Lund’s methodical approach, vision and investment in state-of-the-art equipment and facilities will advance the company’s distribution of sustainable seafood,” said Taormina.
