Seafood Expo 2016: Distributor helps make seafood a differentiator at Giant Eagle

At a Monday session on seafood procurement, Sean Sullivan, VP at seafood importer and distributor Euro USA, detailed how he and his company have helped build Giant Eagle’s seafood program.

Euro USA worked with Giant Eagle to develop its “Famous for Fresh” seafood program, Sullivan said. The retailer’s loyalty card data showed “their No. 1 customer of the whole store is buying seafood,” said Sullivan.

Giant Eagle saw that as an opportunity to make the seafood department a differentiator for the chain in order to keep those customers loyal. “This is a customer that they really want to capture at the store level,” said Sullivan.

Sullivan said the key to his company’s relationship with Giant Eagle was communication. He holds weekly conference calls with members of Giant Eagle’s team where they give an update of what’s happening in the market and pick three or four seafood items to highlight in the retailer’s weekly ad. For each item, Euro USA is able to provide from the supplier the name of the boat that caught the fish and the fisherman so that Giant Eagle can tell a good story around seafood.

Those featured items are sold at a low price to reinforce Giant Eagle’s positioning as a destination for seafood, said Sullivan.