City staff, elected officials, several state commissioners and other guests joined Ready Seafood at a ribbon-cutting event for its new facility in Saco this week.
The 52,000-square-feet facility, on 40 acres along U.S. Route 1, represents an investment of $15 million, according to a news release.
Recognized as the largest lobster processing operation in Maine, the facility will have state-of-the-art technology, on-site storage and a research center. Maine has always had a top position as a lobster harvester, but processing of the lobster is often left to New Brunswick, Canada, or other states.
Ready Seafood is poised to hire around 50 new full-time employees, bringing their workforce and new job creation to about 250 predominately full-time employees in Saco.
Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Heather Johnson, was one of the state commissioners in attendance, a reflection of Gov. Janet Mills’ statement in May that workforce development would be a focus of her administration.
Saco’s planning and development director, Denise Clavette, said, “Ready Seafood joined a newly formed workforce development coalition to work collaboratively to address workforce challenges. Along with the cities of Saco-Biddeford, chamber of commerce and representatives from numerous businesses, agencies and organizations, Ready Seafood has already proven to be of significant value in contributing their time and effort in this initiative”.
The Saco Planning Board last September gave final approval to Ready Seafood Co. to build the processing plant.
Around the same time, Vancouver, Canada-based Premium Brands Holding Corp. (TSX: PBH) completed its acquisition of Ready Seafood, putting the Portland-based brand under the same ownership as Hub City Fisheries and Diana Seafood. Premium Brands has retain John and Brendan Ready as partners as well as the company’s three production facilities in Maine. According to its website, Ready Seafood buys and sells over 15 million pounds of live and processed lobster annually.
