anterior to 2006, the two companies were separate. M & M Shrimp Company had grown to become one of Biloxi Freezing & Processing ’ randomness largest customers. As a great occupation relationship grew into one of common friendship and deference, they decided to merge and become one party, with more capabilities and a stronger competitive advantage in the marketplace .
Known as the “ coolest guys in town, ” third-generation President, Mark Mavar and Vice President, Jonathan McLendon are not lone “ cool ” but embody a new generation of up-to-date shrimp processors. They are smart, advanced and growing at a rapid pace. In their 20,000 square foot process adeptness, pioneered the use of optical laser sorting machines in the U.S. runt diligence. They have worked with the suppliers to make all processes faster and more efficient. Over the past 10 years the company has tripled production, and they look to increase another 25 % over the adjacent five years .
Beyond the engineering and ever-improving processes, quality is the private detective discussion at Biloxi Freezing/M & M Processing. A banner inside the action facility hangs where everyone can see it, “ A Quality Product is Our Goal Every Day. ” The wild-caught Gulf shrimp processed at the facility are packed to give customers true net weights, counts, uniformity and color consistency.
The Suarez/McLendon Heritage
Jonathan ’ s roots go back to his great grandfather, Joseph Suarez, who opened Suarez Seafood in 1927 at 408 Lee Street in Biloxi. The retail market offered oysters, crabs, fish and shrimp, and back then there was a lot of bartering, such as an rally of flour or milk for fresh fish .
Although the original building is no longer there due to Hurricane Katrina, the property is located correct around the corner from Biloxi Freezing, and when Teri, passes by on her way to work, it always brings back affectionate memories of when she started working for the business in 1974 with her beget, “ Mr. Joe. ”
After high school and a brusque stretch in the Navy, Mr. Joe returned to the coast to take over the kin occupation. When a hurricane took the building in 1947, he built it again and focused only on oysters. When Camille hit in 1969, he came back so far again, but this prison term, he transitioned the focus of the company to unload prawn boats right off the bayou next to his operation that he named M & M Shrimp Company .
Mr. Joe passed away in 2001 at the historic period of 73. This man loved the prawn occupation. The sidereal day before he passed away in his sleep, he was up at the plant working. He constantly said he wouldn ’ thyroxine drop out working until the day he died. About a year late Jonathan stepped in and took over operations .
“ A long time ago, we used to clean prawn on the tables rather of an inspection belt like we do now, ” he says. “ He ’ d be right in the center of the women cleaning prawn with them and he would hum the whole time. He was known for his hum. He loved being in the business and there merely wasn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate anything better for him. ”
Read more: Sole with a Light Creamy Shrimp Sauce
Mr. Joe had a great impact on Mark arsenic well. In 1995, Mark decided to follow in the footsteps of his family ’ randomness strong relationship with the seafood industry by purchasing Biloxi Freezing, which at that clock time, operated as a peculiarity business that hand-peeled and headed runt for other clients in township, but by and large freeze shrimp for Mr. Joe ’ randomness business .
“ Mr. Joe and I started working closely together and he took me on sales trips, and Suarez Seafood became our biggest customer, ” Mark says. “ He took me under his wing and taught me what goes on in the plant. We used to drive up to meet customers, and he ’ five hundred say, ‘ you got tantalum listen to what they are tellin ’ ya and if they want product a certain way, we got ta make certain we get the merchandise for them the manner they want it. ”
“ even though we ’ re not related, Mark ’ s family has the lapp history in the shrimp clientele as my family, and we converged, ” Jonathan says. “ And just like my grandfather, we love what we do and are passionate about what we do. We want future generations to have the lapp opportunity as we did in this business. ”
The Mavar Heritage
Mark besides grew up in the seafood occupation, indeed learning the ropes wasn ’ t precisely new for him, but he appreciated Mr. Joe ’ s “ hands on ” approach, and his rage for honesty and a quality product, much like his father, Victor Mavar, and his grandfather, John Mavar Sr .
The Mavar seafood bequest began when John emigrated to Biloxi from Croatia in 1898 and later became a deckhand on schooners, while his wife, Olivia Skrmetta, ran a grocery memory. By 1926, he owned his own boat, was an feel commercial fisherman, and had saved enough money to buy a small piece of property on the beach to drop boats, which finally led to the successful entrepreneurial guess of Mavar Shrimp & Oyster Company.
Read more: Sole with a Light Creamy Shrimp Sauce
winner and his brothers followed their church father into the business, and at one point, it was the largest canner of prawn and oysters in the Gulf of Mexico. however, as refrigeration and freezers were introduced in homes, the want for canning seafood significantly declined .
After some innovative intend, in 1961, the Mavars continued to utilize the can equipment by transitioning into the caterpillar food occupation under the Kozy Kitten label until the company was sold in 1987 .
When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, it devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But, as fortune would have it, a silver line was found when Katrina created an opportunity for Biloxi Freezing and M & M Shrimp Company to merge and moved ahead as one profitable company founded on about two centuries of experience .
