Maine Food Insider: Ducktrap River doubles production capacity with purchase of building
Photo / James McCarthy
Don Cynewski, general manager of Ducktrap River of Maine, said the company recently bought a neighboring 50,000-square-foot property that should be operational by Feb. 1 of next year and be dedicated to its biggest seller, cold-smoked salmon.
Ducktrap River of Maine, a Belfast smoked salmon and seafood producer owned by $3.54 billion Norwegian seafood company Marine Harvest ASA (NYSE: MHG), said it has bought the former Little River Apparel building next to it, and plans to double production capacity starting next Feb. 1.
The 50,000-square-foot building, which housed the former sewing factory until it closed in February 2016, was sold by its parent organization, Group Home Foundation, to Ducktrap River for an unspecified amount via a private transaction managed by Pierce Atwood, Don Cynewski, general manager of Ducktrap River, told Mainebiz.
The sale was made the week of July 17, though Ducktrap River was negotiating to buy the property for about eight months, he said. Marine Harvest provided the loan funding for the purchase. Both buildings are in the Belfast Business Park. Little River Apparel employed people with disabilities making chemical-protective suits for the U.S. military.
Ducktrap River will dedicate all of the new space to cold-smoked salmon, its top-selling product. It sells to the retail and food service industries, completely within the United States. About 5% of sales are to Maine. Revenue is $3 million to $5 million per month, said Cynewski, who was a Mainebiz Next 2014 award winner.
“With the initial buildout we’ll have the ability to double production capacity,” he said, adding that the company will expand in stages. It currently is in 75,000 square feet.
Employees grew from 130 in 2014 to 160 now, and he expects to add another 30 over the next four to five years.
Ducktrap River sources its salmon from Alaska and South America, with some farmed salmon from Norway. It also sells trout and other fish, but the demand for cold-smoked salmon prompted the most recent expansion.
“We were turning away business and were at full capacity,” he said. He initially looked at expanding the existing building, but when the neighboring building became available he set his eyes on buying it.
The company also completed a $4.5 million, 21,000-square-foot expansion in 2013 that doubled production and processing capacity and replaced its refrigeration/heating system with a more energy efficient unit. That extra capacity is already full, Cynewski said.
The original Little River Apparel building is 20 years old, but it expanded the facility 10 years ago, so it is in good shape overall, Cynewski said.
He plans to first build out 26,000 square feet of processing space and use another 10,000 square feet as office space. The remaining 14,000 square feet will be for future expansion.
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