In 2023, fresh and frozen seafood company Lagoon Seafood is celebrating 30 years in business. This summer, the maker of Blue Tide and Royal Harbour brands will be hosting an event to celebrate this milestone and reveal its newly renovated facilities in Granby, Quebec. Strategy spoke to Michael Cheaib, business resource manager at Lagoon Seafood, for a check in on how the business is faring after the ups and downs of the economy over the last three years, as well how it responds to ever-shifting trends in the frozen and seafood categories.

How did lockdowns affect demand for Lagoon? 

Like many other businesses, the lockdown impacted our business in terms of supply chain and delays. However, we were lucky enough to have kept surplus in our frozen inventory, which helped us continue to service our clients and communities with products.

Is seafood largely immune from diet trends like keto and paleo?

Not at all. We know as a matter of fact that fish and seafood is highly favourable to maintain a healthy lifestyle, aligned with dietary needs. As such, people tend to add more seafood into their diet habits.

What’s the breakdown of how important retail is versus food service? Has either one been stable over time, and are you seeing a swing?

They’re both quite stable industries, but retail tends to be more certain and profitable from a business standpoint. For example, during the pandemic, a lot of restaurants were impacted, and many were permanently closed, which impacted our food service operation slightly. Given the pandemic and the impact of current inflation on costs, many people are becoming reserved with their budget and spending. Eating in restaurants can be more expensive than shopping at your local grocery store and making your food at home. The demand from the retail sector has increased massively and business has never been as stable and demanding.

How closely does Lagoon keep tabs on developments in lab-grown proteins? 

Lagoon Seafood is always looking for new and innovative ways to diversify our product offerings to customers. We are currently focused on our ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products with more innovations coming soon.

We continue to monitor industry advancements and Lagoon Seafood will always consider the right product offerings for our customers that deliver on our original values of quality, sustainability and innovation.

Is value-added the future for the company, or is there promise elsewhere?

Value added products, including ready to eat and ready to cook and serve will be a major player in the growth of the company in the future, as we create innovative seafood products that are creative, unique, and extremely delicious, easily paired with seafood and non-seafood meals.

What about tartares? Does demand have legs, at least for the foreseeable future, or is it still a bit of a novelty?

The tartares have been and will always remain classic favourable meals. There is always demand for the tartares, however, we’re creating Tuna and Salmon tartares in different flavours which fall under our value-added product category, that are extremely delicious.