Live from IBSS: BSF Helps Retailers Find Their Fish

At the International Boston Seafood Show, Bluzette Carline, marketing director at Jacksonville, Fla.-based Beaver Street Fisheries (BSF), manufacturer of the Sea Best retail line of frozen seafood, was particularly excited about the company’s “Fish Finder” program.

Created as an online tool powered by Sea Best with the goal of “breaking down the intimidation around seafood,” Fish Finder enables consumers to select the best species for them by the criteria of flavor (mild, medium or robust), texture (delicate, medium or firm) and preferred cooking method (grill, fry, bake, boil). When the user inputs the pertinent information, the tool shows him or her an appropriate fish selection.

Now, however, Fish Finder is about to be found in stores, Carline told Progressive Grocer at BSF’s booth on March 11, complete with in-store signage at the seafood case, tie-in packaging featuring the program’s graphics, and an adjacent takeaway piece to get shoppers up to speed on the program.

BSF plans to run a test of the in-store Fish Finder at all Harveys stores, and the company anticipates rollouts to other grocery chains as well, noted Carline, who added that the manufacturer was leveraging social media promotions “to get people using” the handy resource. In the future, she envisioned the initiative encompassing recipes and food pairings.

Recent products from BSF include the Sea Best Signature Roasted Tomato & Herb Salmon.

Co-located with Seafood Processing America and running through March 12, the International Boston Seafood Show is North America’s largest seafood trade event, attracting 19,000 buyers and sellers from more than 100 countries, and more than 1,000 exhibiting companies. The events are produced by Portland, Maine-based Diversified Business Communications.