Mazzetta Buys Atwood Lobster

by Sandra Dinsmore

Companies rarely make as right a match as have Atwood Lobster and the Mazzetta Company. Both are family companies with first and second generations working together.

Five years ago, Atwood founder William Atwood, then 68, after declining an offer to buy his company, decided that when the right person or company came along, he would sell. Up until September 2001, he had been building and improving his lobster business at Spruce Head since 1970, when he and a partner he later bought out first purchased the property.

Around the same time in 2006, Mazzetta Company founder Thomas Mazzetta, then 55, decided to continue broadening his company’s horizons, as son Jordan, now 30, said in a recent telephone interview, by, “Increasing their steps into the lobster product and industry.” The company processes any number of different kinds of fish and shellfish.

By 2008, Atwood and Mazzetta were doing business together and had started building a business relationship. That year Atwood declined a second offer to sell, and not long after Atwood and Mazzetta’s initial business meeting, Atwood said he realized the addition of his company to the Mazzetta’s growing business would be, “A very good fit for the future for both of us.” Atwood, a champion lobster marketer who has twice been awarded the Maine International Trade Center’s “Maine Exporter of The Year” award, considers the Mazzetta Company to be “a very well-planned and growing marketing company.”

By 2010, Mazzetta had been looking at the Maine lobster industry and buying product here for three years. Each year they had stopped by Atwood’s and in 2010, Mazzetta bought quite a lot of Atwood’s lobster. Impressed with what he had learned about Mazzetta, Atwood said, “I mentioned that I was interested in selling.”

Atwood was also tremendously impressed with the reception Mazzetta produced at the end of this year’s Boston Seafood Show. Of the 30 or more different receptions he’d been to over the years, Mazzetta’s, Atwood said, “Was one of the most excellent I have ever attended.”

Each year the company imports more than 100 million lbs. of seafood from 20 countries. Its 2009 Corporate Responsibility Report, available on the internet, lists 38 pages of information on how it handles the many species it processes and sells under its SEAMAZZ® brand. Along with many other kinds of wild and farmed fish and shellfish, it processes, Jordan Mazzetta said, “At least half a dozen species of lobster,” adding the company takes great interest in being a steward to the environment and caring for each resource it buys.

Mazzetta’s interest in the environment explains why the company made this investment in Maine. That lobster is such a strong resource and is sustainable, Jordan said, “made us comfortable as a family business. We’re in our second generation, so being able to continue on there for many, many years is great.” He said there are “a whole mess of relatives in the business: brothers, uncles,” and added, “The crew over at Atwood’s, when we got to meet them, it was a similar atmosphere. They appear to be close with one another: familiar with family businesses and the like. That works well with us. I know it sounds strange coming from guys from Chicago, but we actually like the connection with the fishermen and getting as close to the resource as we can. We understand the importance of the fishermen and being right there out on the wharf.”

Although Mazzetta Company now owns Atwood Lobster, Jordan explained that, “Atwood Lobster will continue on as its own entity.” Mazzetta has had a snazzy logo with a curvy, stylized lobster, designed for the new Atwood’s.

As for the business, Jordan Mazzetta made it clear that the people at Atwood would have Mazzetta’s full support in rebuilding the business. “It operates on its own. It’s responsible for what happens within its doors to its own fishermen and the wharves it buys from. The funds will be there to grow.” He then added, “The customer base that we bring along that we can work into that business will help it grow pretty quickly as well.”

Jordan said 22-year wholesale lobster veteran Greg Hansen is general manager. “He’s the big boss there,” though he added that Hansen will also work on other live lobster functions for Mazzetta.

Hansen, born and raised in Bangor, and the second youngest of eight brothers, says he learned the art of conciliation early. After carrying that art with him into the business world, he found he had a gift for selling, and in 2008, he and Jordan Mazzetta met when he was working at another seafood company.

Two years later, after Mazzetta bought the Beach Point lobster processing plant on Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.), Hansen recalled, “Mazzetta realized they had to step up their procurement of lobster for processing. They recalled my dealings, and discussions led to my coming on board [Mazzetta] in July of 2010.”

The following May, Mazzetta purchased Atwood Lobster. Hansen said, “The acquisition of Atwood is another step in the process of our long-range, long-term commitment to growth in the Maine lobster industry and our product line. Some of my duties in my capacity as Manager of Live Lobster Operations for New England and the Canadian Maritimes are to procure live lobster up and down the New England coast throughout the year and from various Canadian provinces during their producing open seasons.”

“That the Mazzetta Company has entered the Maine lobster industry and is buying Maine product is good news for Maine lobster fishermen and the industry,” said Hansen. “Mazzetta’s 30 years of successful market growth is exactly what the state has needed more of. Mazzetta represents a real boost for Maine lobster. It’s going to take developments like opening new markets to raise the value of the harvest in Maine, and Mazzetta is doing just that,” Hansen said.

Fmi: www.SEAMAZZ.com.