Rouses Debuts Private-Label Gulf Fish Program

THIBODAUX, La. — Rouses Markets last week launched a line of seasonal, sustainable, local Gulf Coast finfish it can offer year-round.

The seasonal fish — drum, sheepshead and flounder — will be flash-frozen and sold under Rouses’ brand, making it a signature line of wild-caught sustainable fish that puts Rouses at the forefront of a national movement to promote local, seasonal, sustainable food, officials said. The new line — all three species — hit the stores two weekends ago, and had been rolled out to all 38 of Rouses’ stores by Monday morning.

“We looked around and saw that nobody on the Gulf Coast was doing this. There had never been a Gulf-bagged program here,” James Breuhl, Rouses’ seafood director, told SN.

“We — the Rouse family and a vendor we’ve worked with to flash-freeze Louisiana shrimp — got together to develop this program, which is a new venture for both us and the vendor.”

Breuhl added that the vendor had to make a big investment to make this possible.

“He already had a nitrogen tunnel for freezing, but not the machinery or materials for packaging. This is a vendor we’ve dealt with for years for other items, but this creates a whole new segment of his business. So, in addition to creating a sustainable market, 40 new jobs were created right away.”

Setting up the program took about 10 months, which is really a short time to do something like this, Breuhl pointed out. It could have taken another retailer more than a year to develop such a detailed program, he said.

The processor is near enough — about an hour from Rouses’ headquarters in Thibodaux — to enable Breuhl and his team to inspect each catch. Right now, the product is an exclusive for Rouses, but could be made available to others in the future.

Rouses’ decision to add this program was customer-driven.

 “More and more, consumers are asking for Louisiana fish and Gulf Coast fish and these seasonal ones had been available only several weeks out of the year,” Breuhl said. “We’ll definitely add more species. In fact, the next one will be speckled trout.”

The bagged, Rouses-label line was introduced to customers in-store over the weekend with demos and cooking classes. The product also has a prominent spot in the chain’s ad circular and has been posted on social media sites.

Indeed, Rouse’s advertising manager Tim Acosta said that five minutes after he’d posted it on Rouses’ Facebook, the new line had already landed five “likes.”

Acosta and Breuhl, alluding to the BP oil spill earlier, said Gulf waters now are absolutely clean and safe for all fish and seafood and have been for quite a while.                      

In a press release earlier this week, Donny Rouse, managing partner of the family’s company, pointed out that Rouses has been carrying flash-frozen Atlantic and Pacific fish filets and decided to add local fish.

“The thought was why not create our own local brand to satisfy our local tastes? The fish are harvested exclusively for Rouses, and personally inspected by our team,” Rouse said. “Every piece is hand-trimmed and filleted by local fish-cutters, vacuum-packed and flash-frozen so it stays at the peak of flavor.”

Rouses has long been known for its local seafood.  “We sell more than 2 million pounds of wild-caught Louisiana shrimp every year — and that’s just shrimp,” Rouse said. “We sell more Louisiana shrimp, crawfish, crabs, oysters and Gulf fish than anyone else in Louisiana or Mississippi.”