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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 13 S E P T E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 9 With Ready Seafood plant, Maine's lobster processing gets boost B y M a i n e b i z S t a f f S a c o — The Maine lobster industry has long been a leader in harvesting, but has lacked adequate pro- cessing sites. Lobsters plucked from Maine waters are often sent to New Brunswick, Canada, or other states to be processed, turned into packaged meat and sold to Maine restaurants for, say, lobster rolls. In August, Massachusetts signed into law a measure that allows companies there to process lobster; previously, they'd been allowed to sell live, cooked or canned lobster, but an estimated 80% of lobsters had been sent out of state for processing, according to the Newburyport [Mass.] News. Now in Maine Ready Seafood has invested $15 million in what it claims is the largest processing plant in the state, at 52,000 square feet. It's significant in that it will enable the Maine lobster industry to pro- cess a larger share of what it harvests. Ready Seaford, which was founded by brothers Brendan and John Ready, was acquired last year by Vancouver, Canada-based Premium Brands Holding Corp. (TSX: PBH), giving it a wider range of resources for expansion. The Portland-based Ready Seafood brand is under the same ownership as Hub City Fisheries and Diana Seafood. Ready Seafood buys and sells over 15 million pounds of live and pro- cessed lobster annually. Ready Seafood's new processing facility is on 40 acres on Route 1 in Saco. It will have state-of-the-art technology, on-site storage and a research center. Ready Seafood is poised to hire around 50 full- time employees, bringing its workforce and new job creation to about 250 predominately full-time employ- ees in Saco. To help finance the project, Maine Technology Institute granted $400,000 to the Ready Seafood subsidiary Maine Seafood Ventures LLC, using funds from the Maine Economy Bond issuance, according to its website. In 2017, MTI granted $2.25 million to Ready Seafood through the Maine Technology Asset Fund. MTI also played a role elsewhere in Saco, granting $150,000 for Luke's Lobster's Cape Seafood affiliate to build a lobster-processing site. While Maine has been slow to get in on the pro- cessing side of the lobster industry, there's further evidence it is making up ground. According to the Maine Lobstermen's Community Alliance, Stonington-based Greenhead Lobster opened a processing facility at 122 Heritage Park Road in Bucksport. In Portland, Shucks Maine Lobster plans a 16,000-square-foot Maine Sustainable Seafood Center on the waterfront. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y C I T Y O F S A C O B R I E F LEFT TO RIGHT: Brian Whitney of Maine Technology Institute; from Ready Seafood co-owner John Ready, COO Brian Skoczenski, and co-owner Brendan Ready; Saco Planning and Development Director Denise Clavette

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