Processing Facilities

Clearwater species are processed in our 12 facilities around the world. Food safety and quality assurance programs, including HACCP, QMP and BRCGS ensure consistency and the highest standards. Full traceability exists through the supply chain for this product.

Clearwater operates six processing facilities across Atlantic Canada – four in Nova Scotia and two in Newfoundland and Labrador. These six facilities receive and ship a variety of Clearwater’s core species, including scallops, lobster, clams, shrimp, sea cucumber and snow crab.

 

Arichat, Nova Scotia

Arichat, located in Cape Breton is home to Clearwater’s patented Dryland Storage facility which allows us to hold and ship healthy, live lobster to customers year-round. The storage system mimics the lobster’s natural overwintering environment and maintains their health and superior quality.

Four million pounds of live, premium lobster pass through Arichat to customers in North America, Europe and Asia annually.

Highland Fisheries, Nova Scotia

Highland Fisheries is located in Glace Bay, on Cape Breton Island. The town began its long history of mining in the 1700s when it was inhabited to supply Fortress Louisbourg with coal. Glace Bay is also home to the national historic site honoring Guglielmo Marconi – the father of radio transmissions and the first cross Atlantic wireless message sent in 1901.

Highland Fisheries is a major employer in the area with 150 staff processing over 3 million pounds of snow crab crab and over 4 million pounds of Arctic Surf Clam annually.

Bedford, Nova Scotia

Our facility in Bedford services lobster customers as well as providing distribution for lobster and other products shipped to eCommerce shoppers across much of mainland North America.

Pierce Fisheries, Nova Scotia

Pierce Fisheries Ltd. is a Clearwater Seafoods processing facility located in Lockeport, Nova Scotia. Lockeport is naturally the perfect location for Pierce, situated along the Southern Shore in the Ragged Islands, an area famous for an abundance of seafood.

In 1986, Pierce was acquired by Clearwater to handle and package Frozen-at-Sea (FAS) scallops and Nova Scotia Prime Lobster. As an innovation leader, Pierce transitioned scallop processing from traditional block freezing to an advanced individually quick freezing (IQF) method. Pierce is a BRCGS (Brand Reputation through Compliance Global Standards) certified facility, a leading food safety and quality assurance program that ensures consistency and the highest standards.

Today, Pierce has 145 employees processing approximately 9 million pounds of Canadian sea scallops and lobster annually.

Grand Bank, Newfoundland

Situated on Newfoundland’s rugged east coast, on the north shore of the Burin Peninsula, Grand Bank was settled by French fishermen in 1640 and has been a merchant fishing and schooner town since the early 1920s.

Grand Bank Seafoods joined Clearwater in 1991 and employs approximately 125 workers. They process over 9.5 million pounds of Arctic Surf Clams (Hokkigai), Cockle Clams (Torigai) and Ocean Quahog Clams (Icelandogai) annually.

St. Anthony, Newfoundland

St. Anthony, a small town on the northern reaches of Newfoundland and Labrador is known as the iceberg, whale and moose capital of the world. It also features one of the world’s major archaeological properties, the Norse village ‘L’Anse Aux Meadows’, which was briefly inhabited around 1000 AD. Surrounded by rugged terrain it is also home for the occasional polar bear, many fishermen and the plant workers who harvest and process Clearwater’s cold water shrimp.

Clearwater and Quin-Sea Fisheries have a joint venture agreement to manage operations of the St. Anthony Seafoods shrimp processing plant in St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador. The plant employs processing and quality assurance staff who process cold water shrimp annually for customers around the world. The St. Anthony plant is BRCGS certified.

In 2015, Clearwater acquired Scotland-based Macduff Shellfish, Europe’s leading shellfish company. Macduff currently operates four processing facilities located throughout the United Kingdom.

 

Mintlaw

Macduff first came to Mintlaw in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1996 and moved into its current processing facility in 2001. Mintlaw is both conveniently and favourably located between two of the largest fishing ports in Europe, Peterhead and Fraserburgh. With approximately 280 employees, Mintlaw focuses on receiving and processing four main species – whelk, scallop, langoustine and brown crab. There is a large 3,500 capacity cold store onsite and is the primary dispatch facility for all customer orders, both national and international.

Stornoway

Located on the Western Isles, the Isle of Lewis is home to Macduff Stornoway. A brand-new, custom-built factory, which opened in 2021 with much improved chilled and frozen storage capabilities, as well as state of the art impingement freezing machinery. With approximately 35 employees, Macduff Stornoway procures Crab and Lobster, in addition to Langoustine and Scallops from across a range of ports all over the Western Isles.

Bellshill

Macduff Bellshill is the Transport and Logistics headquarters for Macduff, where the team manages all inbound and outbound transport, as well as fishing gear supplies for our vertically integrated Scallop fleet. They also coordinate export documentation and veterinary checks for both fresh and frozen product being exported to the European Union.

Exeter

Located in Devon, on the South West coast of England, Macduff’s Exeter facility is a cross docking hub for South Coast whelk logistics. Exeter also operates small live shellfish holding tanks and the vivier dispatch. With approximately 12 employees, Exeter is responsible for collecting and transporting locally sourced whelk to Macduff’s processing plant in Mintlaw.

 

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