Jacksonville-based Beaver Street Fisheries is partnering with North America’s largest food redistributor in a move aimed at expanding the local company’s service area and enlarging its customer base.
In a July 25 news release, Beaver Street Fisheries announced it had formed a new partnership with Illinois-based Dot Foods. That company, through the affiliate Dot Transportation Inc., delivers goods to food service, convenience, retail and vending products to distributors in all 50 states and more than 55 countries. Dot Foods operates 13 U. S. distribution centers and four in Canada.
“Partnering with Dot Foods allows us to better meet the evolving needs of our customers,” said Scott Lane, Beaver Street Fisheries vice president of Supply Chain, in the release.
“Their distribution expertise and national reach will enhance our ability to deliver quality products where and when our customers need them.”
Beaver Street works with Lineage Logistics, which operates Jacksonville warehouses, and other distributors to reach larger markets.
A minimum order for Beaver Fisheries through Lineage Logistics is 3,000 pounds, Lane said in a phone interview.
Beaver Street sends its products to Dot Foods and from there Dot breaks down the Beaver Street order to send to small market customers.
Dot takes a smaller Beaver Street Fisheries order and couples it with frozen foods from other companies to fill a freezer truck and make the delivery to a smaller grocery store.
“Existing Dot customers may get all of their frozen goods every Thursday. All of the frozen product would come in at once. It is so much easier,” Lane said.
This means a small store could get a variety of frozen products from Beaver Street Fisheries Seafood along with frozen goods like pizzas, vegetables and ice cream from other companies in the same delivery on the same day in one Dot Foods truck.
Beaver Street Fisheries sells to more than 500 food distributors in 45 states through its current partnership with Lineage. Partnering with Dot Foods will allow Beaver Street to sell to small markets that are not currently being served.
Beaver Street Fisheries is a 70-year-old Jacksonville-based company that specializes in servicing commercial and retail customers with seafood and meat products. The company’s flagship brand is Sea Best.
Dot Foods is based in the Western Illinois town of Mount Sterling.