Lobster plant increases workforce by nearly 50%
A lobster processing plant in Gouldsboro plans to expand its workforce by nearly 50% to almost 200 from last year when it resumes production this month.
The Bangor Daily News reported that Maine Fair Trade Lobster is finishing a nearly $3 million renovation project for the former Stinson Seafood cannery to create what it says will be the largest lobster processing processing plant in the state. The group behind the project is a partnership between East Coast Seafood and Garbo Lobster.
The plant is hoping to double its output from last year to 8 million pounds, according to Michael Tourkistas, CEO and president of East Coast Seafood. He said the plant could “grow up to 300 employees in the next two to three years.”
Tourkistas told the BDN that Maine’s higher volume of annual lobster harvests has helped expand the state’s processing sector. The plant’s renovations this year were supported by a $500,000 federal grant and a $2.5 million financing package from Machias Savings Bank and CEI (formerly Coastal Enterprises Inc.).
East Coast Seafood and Garbo Lobster acquired the 100,000-square-foot Gouldsboro plant for $900,000 in 2012 after Bumble Bee Foods closed its operations there in 2011.
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