Coastal Pride Co. specializes in importing pasteurized and fresh crabmeat primarily from Mexico and Latin America.
Blue Star Foods Corp., Miami, Fla., through its operating subsidiary John Keeler & Co., Inc., acquired Coastal Pride Co., Inc., a Beaufort, S.C.-based seafood company that specializes in importing pasteurized and fresh crabmeat primarily from Mexico and Latin America.
“Blue Star has a long-term strategy to build a vertically integrated, geographically diverse, multi-species, sustainable seafood company. We took great care in determining which company we should partner with first, and we believe Coastal Pride is the ideal first acquisition for our company. The Lubkin family has been running Coastal Pride for two generations led by their patriarch, Walter Lubkin Jr., who has created an impressive company that we can build upon. We believe Coastal Pride has developed tremendous value in their brands, including Lubkin’s Coastal Pride, Lubkin’s First Choice and Lubkin’s Good Stuff, which are known in our industry as premium and well-respected products,” says John Keeler, chairman and CEO. “Blue Star has traditionally been very strong in providing consistent and premium Portunus species from Southeast Asia to the marketplace, and Coastal Pride has been very strong in their sourcing of Callinectes species from Mexico and South America. On a combined basis, we expect to be a one-stop-shop for customers who want major categories of pasteurized and fresh crabmeat under the same umbrella.”