John Pollock, who worked at Sysco for 16 years, takes Fortune Fish & Gourmet's senior vice president of procurement, a newly created role. Before joining Sysco, Pollock was a seafood buyer at Red Lobster, the world's largest seafood restaurant chain.
Thereby, Pollock will lead the company's development of the domestic shrimp brand at an Illinois-based company. In addition, he will oversee procurement with a particular emphasis on the company's operations in the Gulf states.
On the other side, Red Lobster is seeking a new CEO after Kelli Valade officially stepped down spending just eight months in the role, we informed yesterday.
Fortune Fish & Gourmet was founded in June of 2001 by Sean O'Scannlain. Firstly, the aim was to become the Midwest's leading seafood and specialty food distributor and offer the best variety, service, and freshness in the business.
Consequently, Fortune acquired Theodore, Alabama-based CCT Logistics. This is a 68,000-foot cold storage facility to better serve US Gulf, state customers. Among its other facilities in the region, the company operates a 30,000-square-foot facility in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.
Also, Fortune has been on a merger and acquisition spree in the past few years. So, the company acquired New Jersey-based D'Artagnan, a supplier of free-range meat and all-natural organic poultry, game, foie gras, mushrooms, and truffles to restaurants and retailers.
Finally, D'Artagnan represents Fortune International's 13th transaction since launching its acquisition strategy in 2012. This has accelerated since entering into a partnership in 2020 with Investcorp, a leading global alternative asset manager.
