Gorton's of Gloucester

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gorton's of Gloucester is a subsidiary of the Japanese seafood conglomerate Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd., producing fishsticks and other frozen seafood for the retail market in the United States. Gorton’s also has a North American foodservice business which sells to fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's, and an industrial coating ingredients operation. It has been headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts since 1849.

The company was founded by Slade Gorton, originally selling salt cod and mackerel. In the early 1900s, the company, then known as Gorton-Pew Fisheries, occupied 15 wharves and 35 buildings in Gloucester, with six other plants on the east coast and a fleet of 55 fishing vessels.

In May 1995 Unilever bought Gorton's from General Mills.

In August 2001, Unilever sold Gorton's and BlueWater Seafoods to Nippon Suisan (USA), Inc., a subsidiary of Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. for $175 million in cash.

1 Whaling
2 Popular Culture
3 References
4 External links
- 4.1 Whaling

[edit] Whaling

In 2005, Gorton's came under attack from the Environmental Investigation Agency, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Greenpeace, due to their parent company's involvement in whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. These groups hope that international companies owned by Nippon Suisan Kaisha (such as Gorton's) will persuade their parent company to stop supporting whaling if they are put under enough pressure.^[1]

Gorton’s is on record stating that the company has never engaged in any whaling activities, never killed a single whale in its entire 156 year history and never will. Gorton’s has always been opposed to whaling and has a long history and recognized commitment to environmental sustainability. Eventually Nippon Suisan Kaisha agreed to de-vest shares from in the company which owned the whaling fleet. Greenpeace hailed this as a victory ^[2] and the boycott of Gorton's ended.

[edit] Popular Culture

Fans of the New York Rangers of the NHL often taunt their rival team and fans, the New York Islanders because in the mid 1990s, the Islanders briefly changed their uniform from their traditional logo to a more new-age logo that featured a fisherman that many thought resembled the Gorton's logo. Rangers fans have been known to chant "We want Fishsticks" at both Madison Square Garden and the Nassau Coliseum during games between the teams.