Darden CEO Otis Stepping Down Same Day Red Lobster Sale Closes 

News Summary: July 29, 2014

Darden CEO Clarence Otis announced he is stepping down by the end of this year, on the same day the sale of Red Lobster was finalized. Darden’s Board also announced that it would make three board seats available to activist shareholders. However, with Red Lobster spun off over their objections, the activists were still quite critical of Darden. 

Meanwhile, in his first interview as head of Red Lobster, Kim Lopdrup said he would end the discounting, and also reverse the move towards more non-seafood dishes. He is retaining shrimp and crab fests, but will try and make the food presentations look more upscale. 

Nova Scotia fisheries Minister Keith Colwell backtracked on his plan for a 5 cent lobster levy after widespread industry skepticism. Instead it will be tried as a pilot project in one location, with a year to implement, and the legislation for the levy will not include a specific amount. All the Atlantic Provinces have agreed to vote in a 2 cent a lb. levy, to be collected by first receivers and split between harvesters and processors. 

Retailers have cut back pretty dramatically on Mahi promotions this spring and summer as prices have risen. Urner Barry data shows a 42% decline in promotional activity, and a 16% rise in average wholesale price, with current promotions selling about $2.00 higher than last year. 

Seattle Fish and a group of Denver chefs are the latest to host one of the Chef’s Collaborative’s ‘trash fish dinners’ to try and boost awareness of alternate species. The chefs say that they need their customers to order these dishes if they are to carry them on the menu, and these dinners help get out that message. 

Dalian’s cold storage center is becoming the largest in Northeast Asia, with several additional warehouses coming on line. The government is actively closing down low quality inefficient warehouses, and encouraging the building of massive new logistics centers. With a holding capacity of 300,000 tons, the port is projected to handle over 1 million tons of frozen fish in its logistics centers in 2015. The rapid buildout of China’s cold store infrastructure is changing the purchasing habits of Chinese consumers. 

Finally, NOAA has contributed to a paper analyzing the effects of ocean acidification in Alaska, and found that king crab and tanner crab were among the species most at risk; and that Western Alaska and Southeast were the areas where communities would be hit hardest economically by increasing ocean acidification.

John Sackton, Editor And Publisher , Lexington, Massachusetts 

Seafood.com News 1-781-861-1441 

Email comments to jsackton@seafood.com

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