Acme Smoked Fish Corp.

Industry	Seafood
Founded	1906
Headquarters	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Products	Smoked salmon, smoked fish, pickled herring
Website	https://www.acmesmokedfish.com/

Acme Smoked Fish Corp. is the largest producer of smoked salmon in North America, ^{[1] [2] [3]} and is also a manufacturer and seller of pickled herring and other smoked and cured seafood products. Acme Smoked Fish has US-based facilities located in New York City, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Florida, as well as international locations in Chile and Denmark. Acme Smoked Fish Corp. is a privately held, family-owned company, that has been headquartered in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn since 1954. ^{[4] [5]}

History

Harry Brownstein founded what would eventually become Acme Smoked Fish in 1906, shortly after emigrating from Russia. ^[6] In Brownstein's early days buying and selling smoked fish in Brooklyn, he did so from a horse-drawn wagon throughout several Brooklyn neighborhoods before setting up a brick-and-mortar location in the Brownsville neighborhood during the 1930s. ^[6] In 1941, Rubin Caslow of Arcee Sales, a prominent smoked fish seller in Brooklyn at the time, joined Harry Brownstein's smoked fish company after marrying Charlotte Brownstein, the daughter of Harry Brownstein. ^[7] In 1954, Acme Smoked Fish was officially incorporated and began manufacturing in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the company's current international headquarters. ^[8]

In 1966, Acme's Brooklyn facility had to be rebuilt after a major fire destroyed the plant. ^[9] Soon after the reconstruction of the facility the company began its pickled herring division. In 1969, Acme Smoked Fish founder Harry Brownstein died, ^[10] leaving the company to his sons Joseph and Morton Brownstein and son-in-law Rubin Caslow. ^[6] In 1975, to accommodate growth and increasing production requirements, Acme purchased the building next door to their Brooklyn facility, bringing the company to occupy a full New York City block. ^[11]

In 1970 and 1972, respectively, Robert and Eric Caslow joined Acme Smoked Fish as the company's third generation of owner operators. ^[12] In 1978 Acme Smoked Fish introduced its first commercial line of consumer packaged good smoked salmon and lox products. ^[13]

Acme Smoked Fish acquired another company for the first time in 2007 with the purchase of Great American Smoked Fish of Pompano Beach, Florida, establishing a new headquarters for Acme Smoked Fish of Florida, LLC, which began as a regional distribution center in 2005. ^[14] In 2015, Acme opened the largest smoked salmon facility in the United States in Wilmington, North Carolina. ^{[15] [16]} Also in 2015, the company opened Acme Chile in Puerto Montt, Chile, making Acme Smoked Fish Corp. multinational for the first time in the company's history. ^{[17] [18]}

In 2019, Acme Smoked Fish acquired Spence & Co. Ltd. of Brockton, Massachusetts. ^{[19] [20] [21]} In 2020, Acme made another acquisition in the form of a majority stake in Norlax A/S, a producer of smoked fish products based in Outrup, Denmark. ^{[22] [23] [24]} Currently, Acme Smoked Fish is managed by its fourth generation of owner operators, Adam Caslow, David Caslow, and Emily Caslow. ^{[25] [26]}

In Popular Culture

Acme Smoked Fish partnered with New York City-based Zucker's Bagels in 2018 in an attempt to make the world's largest bagel, cream cheese, and smoked salmon sandwich. The final product weighed 213 pounds. ^[27] The attempt was featured on Inside Edition, but was never certified as a world record by Guinness World Records. ^[28]

References