Food Processor of the Year (Large Company)

Trans-Ocean Products, Bellingham

Can you apply lean operating principles to an industry like seafood processing? Can you get employees to go along with the program? Thats what Trans-Ocean Products, a producer of imitation crab and lobster, wanted to find out. So it introduced a waste-reduction program in its factories, as many companies have. To get employee buy-in, Trans-Ocean pledged not to lay off any employee as a result of productivity gains. The result was a 25-percent increase in production capacity from its existing plants.

To put that increase to work, Trans-Ocean went looking for new market opportunities and product introductions, efforts that, by its own admission, it hadnt done well at before. This time, the company came up with a process to cut down on indecision and speed up the time it takes to get ideas tested and to market.

Trans-Ocean has launched four new product categories in three years, including a seafood salad kit for supermarket delis and seafood departments. Its most recent product introduction, aimed at kids, is Seafood Snackers, imitation crab legs made with Alaskan pollock and king crab that can be eaten straight from the package or served with dipping sauces or on crackers. Walmart has placed an order for Trans-Ocean to supply 3,500 stores with the product.