BUCKSPORT, Maine — Central Maine Cold Storage, a new custom food freezing, storage and shipping business, is opening its $2 million facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house Thursday, Oct. 9.
The business initially will employ approximately 15 full-time-equivalent workers, with plans to increase that number with the expected growth of the company, according to Brian McCarthy, CEO and part-owner of the new business.
The privately funded $2 million facility will bring food freezing services closer to the fishermen who need it, McCarthy said during a phone interview Wednesday.
“We are pleased to be in the town of Bucksport and appreciate that the town and the state of Maine have helped us to create this business to help seafood [customers] process their products,” he said.
McCarthy said the company already has 2.5 million pounds of lobster lined up and expects to begin processing seafood next week.
Currently, 60-70 percent of Maine’s seafood is shipped to Canadian facilities to be processed, according to a press release from Central Maine Cold Storage. The new facility combines 80 years of experience in the frozen foods industry to offer customers individually quick frozen, blast freezing, frozen storage, packaging and shipping for Maine seafood, which will be able to carry the label “Maine Seafood … Product of Maine.”
“I commend Central Maine Cold Storage for finding a cost-efficient way to meet the needs of Maine seafood harvesters who would have otherwise continued to send their fish to Canadian facilities,” Gov. Paul LePage said in a government press release. “I am proud of your sense of entrepreneurship, finding a void in the market and filling it. Bucksport, Maine, is certainly still a viable place to do business. Central Maine Cold Storage is proof of that.”
The governor will participate in Thursday’s grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tour of the facility at 2:30 p.m. The open house for the public will be held 1:30-3:30 p.m.
McCarthy said he hopes the company will expand rapidly, and he eventually wants to process other Maine-based products, such as wild blueberries.
Central Maine Cold Storage is located at 84 Heritage Park Road and is online at cmcs.biz.
