Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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Timeless Products for a Modern Market Seafood consumption in the U.S. has been on a slight decline in recent years, but smoked fish is gaining, and Acme is helping to lead the charge. "The company has been growing at a rate of 8 percent over the past four years," says Gabriel Viteri, Acme's vice president of strategy and business development. And while the supplier has some West Coast competition in the likes of Ocean Beauty Seafood, as far as the Northeast is concerned, Acme is king. It all began in 1954 at a 10,000-square-foot factory at 26 Gem Street, a small building in an industrial stretch of North Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood. "Over the years it's expanded to the point where we pretty much take up the entire block of Gem Street," Viteri says. Today, the factory is a sizable 65,000 square feet and the company's main distribution hub for its range of smoked fish, salads (such as whitefish spread), herring, and other specialties. Producing some 20,000 pounds of fish daily—100,000 pounds per week—the Brooklyn facility is the largest individual smokehouse in the U.S. Inside the Smokehouse The factory stands on a quiet street, with the company's presence indicated only by a sign bearing the Acme logo on the red brick building's exterior. Inside, however, is a steady flow of activity. The company's corporate offices sit on the north end of the building, with some 30 staffers, while the factory employs another 110 for produc- tion, which takes place from start to finish on-site. All new employees go through rigorous training, says Viteri— even the corporate staff, who spend a week on the factory f loor learning the production process. "Part of the orientation program here is getting your hands dirty," he says. "At the end of the day we're a manufacturing company … so I think having a good understand- ing of what is it that we make is important for the business." Receiving, Filleting, and Curing. Shipments of raw materials (the fish) arrive at the factory two to four days a week, and the first production shift begins at 4 a.m. In preparation for the smoking process, fish are first cured, either by wet-brining or dry-salting. The wet cure is typically used for larger fillets and whole fish (as used by appetizing stores around the city), in which the fish soaks in a house-made bath of sugar, salt, and seasonings. Smaller fillets—such as those in Acme's packaged products—are typically dry-cured, for which workers season the fish by hand. Curing times vary, from several hours to several days. On a Tuesday morning in April, heaps of 20-pound Norwegian and Chilean salmon wait in several large bins in what's called the Wet Room. A team of 10 works deftly to slice fish with precision, preparing 14,000 pounds each day. Spare parts don't go to waste, says Caitlin Bajo, Acme's marketing and sales specialist, as sushi chefs often buy the skin and heads discarded in the filleting process. Cold-Smoking and Hot-Smoking. Two methods of smoking are in use at Acme. By law, only salmon, tuna, and sable can be cold- smoked, while all other fish—whitefish, trout, sturgeon, and others— are hot-smoked. (Acme also hot-smokes some tuna and salmon.) The company uses only alder and cherry wood chips for the smoking process. factory tour FOUR GENERATIONS AND A CENTURY OF HISTORY 1905: Harry Brownstein, a Russian immigrant, begins selling smoked fish to appetizing stores around New York City from a horse-drawn wagon. 1937: Brownstein launches a smoked fish company in Brownsville, Brooklyn, with partner Mike Seltzerman. 1954: Brownstein opens his own smoked fish plant with his two sons; Acme Smoked Fish is incorporated and opens at 26 Gem Street in Greenpoint. 1968: Acme gains its first major supermarket clients; other local markets soon follow. 1969: Brownstein dies; his children take over the business. 1970–1972: Grandsons Robert and Eric Caslow join Acme, bringing in the third generation. 1978: The introduction of commercial vacuum-pack technology leads to the launch of Acme's first line of smoked salmon packs. 1995: David Caslow, Eric's son, joins the company as the start of the fourth generation. 2000: Acme debuts the Blue Hill Bay brand; the company establishes a West Coast office. 2005: Acme Smoked Fish of Florida, LLC, launches as a distribution center. 2006– 2007: Ruby Bay brand debuts; Acme acquires Great American Smoked Fish Company. 2012: Acme undergoes a rebranding to unify all products and brands and grow education. 2014: A state-of-the-art production facility in North Carolina is slated to open by year's end. Smoked whitefish PHOTO: EVA MESZAROS 130 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com factoryTour_Summer14.indd 130 6/2/14 3:08 PM