Vertical Marketing 101

Enough already about turkey and cranberry sauce. Let’s talk shrimp. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to write about the Green Cuisine program from Contessa Premium Foods, the Los Angeles-based company known primarily for its frozen shrimp.

Earlier this year, Contessa opened the Green Cuisine plant, a state-of-the-art, $40 million facility using advanced design, technology and processes to significantly reduce the operation's environmental impact. There’s solar power, heat recycling, loading dock efficiencies and variable speed motors that adapt to production needs. A very modernistic air handling system is pictured. It became the first frozen food plant awarded LEED certification.

What I found interesting is the vertical marketing the company has developed. The shrimp sourced by the company are farmed using environmentally sensitive techniques, which include improving water quality with probiotics; the food is processed in the green plant in LA; and a special logo has been developed noting that fact right on the box, for the consumer to see.

Shrimp has always been a seafood favorite for American consumers. It’s nice to see that, with Contessa’s help, the little guys can make such a big sustainability statement.