RAINFOREST SEAFOODS PIONEER LIONFISH
In a mere 16 years, Brian Jardim has grown Rainforest Seafoods into the largest seafood supplier in the Caribbean. From its Montego Bay headquarters, Jardim heads up a team of 250 employees who ensure the distribution of more than 400 types of premium quality fish and shell fish to customers across the Caribbean with efficient and friendly service. The Rainforest Seafoods team is venturing into the future with passion for their products and the pioneering company recently received worldwide attention from Andrew Zimmernhost of the Travel Channel’s ‘Bizarre Foods’, for it’s creative solution to reducing the overpopulation of the predatory Lionfish in the waters off Jamaica by introducing the tasty, white meat fish to consumers as a delicacy. With the opening of a new US$8m processing plant in Kingston, the roll-out of a new fast-food restaurant concept called the “Fish Pot”, two new production plants in Honduras and Belize and a steady growth of retail outlets, products and customers, this forward thinking company is creating its own future.
With more than 5 million pounds of seafood in their distribution system at any given time, Rainforest Seafoods has come a long way since Brian started dabbling with the import of seafood from Guyana for Montego Bay’s romantic, oceanfront eatery ‘Marguerites’ in 1995. Together with former business partner Ian Dear, Brian had bought the old oceanfront restaurant and its adjacent land on Montego Bay’s famous ‘Hip Strip’ and revamped the venue into a premier dining venue specializing in seafood. Simultaneously, the business duo built the two-story night spot ‘Margaritaville’ next door on the adjoining land, growing it into the most successful chain of restaurants and clubs on the island’s tourist shores.
The Rainforest Seafoods name relates back to Brian’s years in Guyana, where he moved from Jamaica with his adoptive parents in the early 70’s and lived for 10 years. Explains Brian; “The business started by importing seafood from the edge of the rainforest, so the name was a natural fit. I initially dabbled in brokerage of fish from Guyana to several islands, including Jamaica, Antigua and Barbados.”
While Brian describes the restaurant venture as the reason he ended up in the seafood industry as “a pleasant accident”, hard work and a good business mind is clearly what has gotten this entrepreneur to the place he is today. After graduating as a qualified accountant (CPA) with a Masters Degree in Business Administration from colleges in the US and Canada, Brian went to work at Ernst & Young in Miami, realizing in less than a year that it was not for him. He recalls laughingly; “The people I worked with were wonderful, but I hated the job”. Returning to Jamaica in 1985 to work at Sandals with his father, Butch Stewart, Brian met co-worker and future wife. Explains the Montego Bay born Shelagh, who grew up between Discovery Bay and Kingston; “I went to high school in Browns Town, St. Ann’s. When I finished school, I took a few courses and worked in the travel business before starting to work at Sandals in the mid-80’s. The couple got married in 1988 and are the proud parents of three handsome young men Maxwell, Ben and Zakary.
In 1995, after 10 years with Sandals, Brian decided he was ready to do his own thing. “I just wanted to be a businessman...an entrepreneur,” he explains. While his focus was on building the ‘Margaritaville’ brand during the early years, capable GM Ernie Grant was steadily growing Rainforest Seafoods. Soon, Rainforest was supplying seafood to several large hotel chains in the Caribbean and exporting products to 10 Caribbean island nations. In 1998, the company opened its first distribution centre in Montego Bay and has since grown into the largest seafood player in the Caribbean.
Since selling his interest in ‘Margaritaville’ in 2010, Brian has been able to concentrate 100% on expanding Rainforest Seafoods. A critical part of the equation is “getting the fish from hook to table quickly,” explains the company owner. “We stock over 400 types of fish and assorted shellfish sourced from more than 100 recognized suppliers around the world, including fin fish, scallops, shrimp, crab, squid, octopus and mussels.” Airtight and comprehensive packaging is paramount to maintaining top quality in all products. Explains Brian, “Seafood is such a delicate protein, so packaging and maintaining a closed cold chain is very important to preserve it.”
The company’s Montego Bay facility is the most technologically advanced seafood processing plant and warehouse in the Caribbean. Explains Brian; “Quality is our primary concern. We exceed the Food and Drug Administration's HAACP plan guidelines, concentrating on precise temperature control throughout the processing and distribution process. Our processing team of 50 works around the clock to provide the highest quality product to our customers across the Caribbean.”
Specializing in modified atmosphere, shrink-wrapping, rollstock, blister and vacuum packaging, Rainforest Seafoods offers consumer packaging for retail sale, as well as private-label, custom-branded products for select customers. “We have a comprehensive range of the finest quality fresh and frozen products, that meet the demands of all our customers from luxury hotels to value conscious consumers,” states Brian. Interestingly, seafood preferences vary between the local and tourist markets. “While the tourists prefer fish fillets, the locals prefer their fish whole.” From two large distribution centers strategically located in Kingston and Montego Bay, the company’s fleet of 30 refrigerated vehicles ensure on-time and efficient delivery to all the company’s customers island-wide.
While many other companies have suffered from the recession, Rainforest Seafoods has maintained its sales volumes, although the company head explains that in some instances sales have evolved away from expensive, exotic products to more traditional staples. According to the company owner, the Caribbean’s most popular products are saltfish, pickled mackerel and all types of smaller snappers and groundfish.
The country with the 4th largest consumption of Norwegian saltfish per capita, it is estimated that every Jamaican consumes approximately two kilos of salt fish per year. A product of immense historic and cultural significance, saltfish was traded for Jamaican rum by merchant seamen centuries ago, making the protein rich product a staple on the island. One of the vital ingredients in the country’s national dish “Ackee & Saltfish”, Rainforest Seafoods sells several chilled containers of saltfish from Norway every month. Explains Brian; “Although it is not inexpensive, saltfish is popular because its use stretches very far for the average consumer and it is a good source of protein. Jamaicans are very creative with the use of salt fish in their meals, combining it with ackee, onion, peppers, callaloo etc.”
The company recently opened two fish processing plants in Central America, facilities from which the firm air freights large quantities of fresh grouper and snapper to Miami on a daily basis. Here again quality is key and the company is quickly earning a reputation among South Florida seafood brokers as a supplier of excellent seafood products. Eldest son Max currently works in the Honduras plant, the first of the three offspring to enter the seafood business.
Though very reserved about her own role and importance in the business, Shelagh’s presence is evident and can be particularly noticed in the company’s 15 retail outlets and catering side of the business. As hard working as her entrepreneurial husband, she clearly is a key member that provides much needed behind-the-scenes support. A popular lunch spot, Rainforest’s gourmet retail store and deli at its Montego Bay headquarters ‘Seafood Market’ serves fresh, healthy lunch options, such as seafood chowders, sushi and sashimi, wraps and farm-fresh salads. “We roll our sushi right here onsite every day,” Shelagh explains. The store offers the finest frozen and fresh-on-ice seafood specialties, including wild salmon, Chilean seabass, mahi-mahi, scallops, clams, oysters, stone crab claws and Alaskan king crab complemented by an assortment of flavorful specialty sauces, dips, rubs and seasonings. The concept has proved so successful that Rainforest will be opening a similar outlet in Kingston early next year.
Brian’s creative management and belief in imaginative growth is evident through the many small and large projects that the company has on the go. Expanding the product portfolio into new and exciting territories, Rainforest Seafoods new US$8m facility in Kingston will enable the company to process and package fish and seafood products, such as local tilapia, shrimp, conch and lobster, from local fishermen for export around the world.
With a state of the art laboratory and new tunnel freezer systems, the company will be able to add further value to products through breading, portioning and flavor profiling, enabling them to supply fish and seafood products to all the fast-food restaurants in the Caribbean. Explains Brian “We have collaborated extensively with several local fast food chains, regarding the production of new seafood products.” Additionally, Rainforest has pioneered its own fast-food restaurant concept called the “Fish Pot” and is developing ‘ready to eat microwavable meals, including conch soups and jerk shrimp.
Sustainability and ecological responsibility is important to ‘Team Rainforest’ who operate according to their company mandate; “We are committed to acquiring product from long term sustainable sources that use environmentally sensitive methods”. Nothing better evidences Brian’s ingenious approach to problem solving than the ‘Lionfish Project’, which has caught world wide attention for its creative solution to the invasion of Lionfish that has been haunting the waters of the Caribbean. Explanations differ on how the Lion Fish got into the local eco system, but the predatorial Asian fish has proliferated throughout the Caribbean ocean basin to the point where it is causing huge ecological problems due to its voracious appetite. Explains Brian; “It is a predator that eats everything, including crabs, baby lobster and other shellfish. It also has venomous spines, which make it dangerous to handle.”
In his typical fashion, Brian came up with a resourceful solution to the problem by introducing Lionfish to the local market as an exotic new fish product. States Brian; “It is a very tender white meat fish, very similar in texture to grouper, and we have been working with our Rainforest Executive Chef Randi Anderson to come up with creative ways to prepare it.” This original solution was recently reported on by Andrew Zimmern, who treks through the world looking for unusual dishes to feature on the Travel Channel’s program ‘Bizarre Foods’. The Chef, writer and culinary explorer recently did a film shoot in Jamaica with Executive Chef Anderson, who prepared succulent Lionfish dishes on camera for the program.
Said Zimmern , about his experience filming in Jamaica “I can tell you that my experience working in Jamaica was revelatory and the Lionfish segment in our show represents an amazing intersection of ideas. Monetizing and incentivizing production of an invas species is a step in the right direction toward solving this troublesome issue.” Zimmern lauded the creativity of Rainforest Seafoods; “Putting pressure on the Lionfish in order to beat back their numbers is something that everyone should get behind. The amazing end result is how delicious the fish is, and unlike other invasive species around the world that I have dined on, this one should have no problem at all in gaining popularity as a center of the plate protein.”
With more than 5 million pounds of seafood in their distribution system at any given time, Rainforest Seafoods has come a long way since Brian started dabbling with the import of seafood from Guyana for Montego Bay’s romantic, oceanfront eatery ‘Marguerites’ in 1995. Together with former business partner Ian Dear, Brian had bought the old oceanfront restaurant and its adjacent land on Montego Bay’s famous ‘Hip Strip’ and revamped the venue into a premier dining venue specializing in seafood. Simultaneously, the business duo built the two-story night spot ‘Margaritaville’ next door on the adjoining land, growing it into the most successful chain of restaurants and clubs on the island’s tourist shores.
The Rainforest Seafoods name relates back to Brian’s years in Guyana, where he moved from Jamaica with his adoptive parents in the early 70’s and lived for 10 years. Explains Brian; “The business started by importing seafood from the edge of the rainforest, so the name was a natural fit. I initially dabbled in brokerage of fish from Guyana to several islands, including Jamaica, Antigua and Barbados.”
While Brian describes the restaurant venture as the reason he ended up in the seafood industry as “a pleasant accident”, hard work and a good business mind is clearly what has gotten this entrepreneur to the place he is today. After graduating as a qualified accountant (CPA) with a Masters Degree in Business Administration from colleges in the US and Canada, Brian went to work at Ernst & Young in Miami, realizing in less than a year that it was not for him. He recalls laughingly; “The people I worked with were wonderful, but I hated the job”. Returning to Jamaica in 1985 to work at Sandals with his father, Butch Stewart, Brian met co-worker and future wife. Explains the Montego Bay born Shelagh, who grew up between Discovery Bay and Kingston; “I went to high school in Browns Town, St. Ann’s. When I finished school, I took a few courses and worked in the travel business before starting to work at Sandals in the mid-80’s. The couple got married in 1988 and are the proud parents of three handsome young men Maxwell, Ben and Zakary.
In 1995, after 10 years with Sandals, Brian decided he was ready to do his own thing. “I just wanted to be a businessman...an entrepreneur,” he explains. While his focus was on building the ‘Margaritaville’ brand during the early years, capable GM Ernie Grant was steadily growing Rainforest Seafoods. Soon, Rainforest was supplying seafood to several large hotel chains in the Caribbean and exporting products to 10 Caribbean island nations. In 1998, the company opened its first distribution centre in Montego Bay and has since grown into the largest seafood player in the Caribbean.
Since selling his interest in ‘Margaritaville’ in 2010, Brian has been able to concentrate 100% on expanding Rainforest Seafoods. A critical part of the equation is “getting the fish from hook to table quickly,” explains the company owner. “We stock over 400 types of fish and assorted shellfish sourced from more than 100 recognized suppliers around the world, including fin fish, scallops, shrimp, crab, squid, octopus and mussels.” Airtight and comprehensive packaging is paramount to maintaining top quality in all products. Explains Brian, “Seafood is such a delicate protein, so packaging and maintaining a closed cold chain is very important to preserve it.”
The company’s Montego Bay facility is the most technologically advanced seafood processing plant and warehouse in the Caribbean. Explains Brian; “Quality is our primary concern. We exceed the Food and Drug Administration's HAACP plan guidelines, concentrating on precise temperature control throughout the processing and distribution process. Our processing team of 50 works around the clock to provide the highest quality product to our customers across the Caribbean.”
Specializing in modified atmosphere, shrink-wrapping, rollstock, blister and vacuum packaging, Rainforest Seafoods offers consumer packaging for retail sale, as well as private-label, custom-branded products for select customers. “We have a comprehensive range of the finest quality fresh and frozen products, that meet the demands of all our customers from luxury hotels to value conscious consumers,” states Brian. Interestingly, seafood preferences vary between the local and tourist markets. “While the tourists prefer fish fillets, the locals prefer their fish whole.” From two large distribution centers strategically located in Kingston and Montego Bay, the company’s fleet of 30 refrigerated vehicles ensure on-time and efficient delivery to all the company’s customers island-wide.
While many other companies have suffered from the recession, Rainforest Seafoods has maintained its sales volumes, although the company head explains that in some instances sales have evolved away from expensive, exotic products to more traditional staples. According to the company owner, the Caribbean’s most popular products are saltfish, pickled mackerel and all types of smaller snappers and groundfish.
The country with the 4th largest consumption of Norwegian saltfish per capita, it is estimated that every Jamaican consumes approximately two kilos of salt fish per year. A product of immense historic and cultural significance, saltfish was traded for Jamaican rum by merchant seamen centuries ago, making the protein rich product a staple on the island. One of the vital ingredients in the country’s national dish “Ackee & Saltfish”, Rainforest Seafoods sells several chilled containers of saltfish from Norway every month. Explains Brian; “Although it is not inexpensive, saltfish is popular because its use stretches very far for the average consumer and it is a good source of protein. Jamaicans are very creative with the use of salt fish in their meals, combining it with ackee, onion, peppers, callaloo etc.”
The company recently opened two fish processing plants in Central America, facilities from which the firm air freights large quantities of fresh grouper and snapper to Miami on a daily basis. Here again quality is key and the company is quickly earning a reputation among South Florida seafood brokers as a supplier of excellent seafood products. Eldest son Max currently works in the Honduras plant, the first of the three offspring to enter the seafood business.
Though very reserved about her own role and importance in the business, Shelagh’s presence is evident and can be particularly noticed in the company’s 15 retail outlets and catering side of the business. As hard working as her entrepreneurial husband, she clearly is a key member that provides much needed behind-the-scenes support. A popular lunch spot, Rainforest’s gourmet retail store and deli at its Montego Bay headquarters ‘Seafood Market’ serves fresh, healthy lunch options, such as seafood chowders, sushi and sashimi, wraps and farm-fresh salads. “We roll our sushi right here onsite every day,” Shelagh explains. The store offers the finest frozen and fresh-on-ice seafood specialties, including wild salmon, Chilean seabass, mahi-mahi, scallops, clams, oysters, stone crab claws and Alaskan king crab complemented by an assortment of flavorful specialty sauces, dips, rubs and seasonings. The concept has proved so successful that Rainforest will be opening a similar outlet in Kingston early next year.
Brian’s creative management and belief in imaginative growth is evident through the many small and large projects that the company has on the go. Expanding the product portfolio into new and exciting territories, Rainforest Seafoods new US$8m facility in Kingston will enable the company to process and package fish and seafood products, such as local tilapia, shrimp, conch and lobster, from local fishermen for export around the world.
With a state of the art laboratory and new tunnel freezer systems, the company will be able to add further value to products through breading, portioning and flavor profiling, enabling them to supply fish and seafood products to all the fast-food restaurants in the Caribbean. Explains Brian “We have collaborated extensively with several local fast food chains, regarding the production of new seafood products.” Additionally, Rainforest has pioneered its own fast-food restaurant concept called the “Fish Pot” and is developing ‘ready to eat microwavable meals, including conch soups and jerk shrimp.
Sustainability and ecological responsibility is important to ‘Team Rainforest’ who operate according to their company mandate; “We are committed to acquiring product from long term sustainable sources that use environmentally sensitive methods”. Nothing better evidences Brian’s ingenious approach to problem solving than the ‘Lionfish Project’, which has caught world wide attention for its creative solution to the invasion of Lionfish that has been haunting the waters of the Caribbean. Explanations differ on how the Lion Fish got into the local eco system, but the predatorial Asian fish has proliferated throughout the Caribbean ocean basin to the point where it is causing huge ecological problems due to its voracious appetite. Explains Brian; “It is a predator that eats everything, including crabs, baby lobster and other shellfish. It also has venomous spines, which make it dangerous to handle.”
In his typical fashion, Brian came up with a resourceful solution to the problem by introducing Lionfish to the local market as an exotic new fish product. States Brian; “It is a very tender white meat fish, very similar in texture to grouper, and we have been working with our Rainforest Executive Chef Randi Anderson to come up with creative ways to prepare it.” This original solution was recently reported on by Andrew Zimmern, who treks through the world looking for unusual dishes to feature on the Travel Channel’s program ‘Bizarre Foods’. The Chef, writer and culinary explorer recently did a film shoot in Jamaica with Executive Chef Anderson, who prepared succulent Lionfish dishes on camera for the program.
Said Zimmern , about his experience filming in Jamaica “I can tell you that my experience working in Jamaica was revelatory and the Lionfish segment in our show represents an amazing intersection of ideas. Monetizing and incentivizing production of an invas species is a step in the right direction toward solving this troublesome issue.” Zimmern lauded the creativity of Rainforest Seafoods; “Putting pressure on the Lionfish in order to beat back their numbers is something that everyone should get behind. The amazing end result is how delicious the fish is, and unlike other invasive species around the world that I have dined on, this one should have no problem at all in gaining popularity as a center of the plate protein.”
