Gorton's

Gorton's is a 175-year-old U.S. frozen seafood manufacturer producing breaded fish, shrimp, and crab products for retail grocery, foodservice (including McDonald's), and DTC merchandise channels from its Gloucester, Massachusetts facility.

Company typePrivate
Founded1849
HeadquartersGloucester, United States
Headcount101–250
GTM typeB2C
OfferingHardware or Manufacturing

What Gorton's does

Gorton's, Inc. is a privately held U.S. frozen seafood manufacturer founded in 1849 and headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The company produces a portfolio of breaded, battered, and sauced frozen seafood — anchored by Alaskan Pollock fish sticks and fillets, shrimp varieties (popcorn, butterfly, beer-battered, coconut, scampi), crab cakes, cod, haddock, and recently introduced taco-flavored tenders — sold under the Gorton's Seafood brand primarily through mainstream U.S. retail grocery stores and supermarkets.

The company's underlying technology centers on frozen-seafood processing: proprietary flash-freezing at peak freshness, signature breading and batter systems including a reduced-fat air-fried coating, and a responsible-sourcing program branded as Trusted Catch that spans multiple sustainability pillars. Manufacturing is concentrated at the Gloucester facility, represented by UFCW Local 1445, with approximately 240 production workers dedicated in part to foodservice volume for McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwiches on the East Coast.

Gorton's commercial model is a hybrid CPG-plus-foodservice-plus-merchandise structure. The dominant revenue stream is one-time retail purchase of frozen seafood SKUs through grocery channel distribution. A secondary but material enterprise stream comes from QSR and foodservice supply, notably McDonald's. A smaller direct-to-consumer merchandise channel sells branded apparel and home goods through gortons.com/shop, leveraging brand equity rather than core food manufacturing. Marketing is executed through the company's owned recipe website and blog, multi-platform organic social (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube), food-influencer partnerships, and retail point-of-sale positioning.

Gorton's firmographics

Firmographics

Name: Gorton's
Legal name: Gorton's, Inc.
Website: https://gortons.com
Company type: Private
Founded year: 1849
Operating status: Operating
Headcount range: 101–250 employees
Short description: Gorton's is a 175-year-old U.S. frozen seafood manufacturer producing breaded fish, shrimp, and crab products for retail grocery, foodservice (including McDonald's), and DTC merchandise channels from its Gloucester, Massachusetts facility.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Gorton's industry classification

Industry

Product category: Frozen Seafood
NAICS: Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging (31171), Frozen Specialty Food Manufacturing (311412)
SIC: Prepared Fresh Or Frozen Fish & Seafoods (2092), Food And Kindred Products (2000)
akta.pro primary industry: Frozen Seafood Meals & Value-Added Seafood (CRADADAG)
akta.pro secondary industries: Frozen Meat, Poultry & Seafood Manufacturing (AFAKACAG), Refrigerated Meat & Seafood (Processed/Packaged) (CRADACAK), Seafood Meal Kits & Heat-and-Eat Entrées (Prepared Meals Featuring Seafood) (AFANALAH), Frozen Meat, Poultry & Seafood Wholesale (AFAIAHAF)

Keywords

Frozen seafood
Fish sticks
Breaded fillets
Prepared shrimp
Frozen fish

Where Gorton's is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city: Gloucester
HQ country: United States
HQ region: North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

Gorton's business model

Business model

GTM type: B2C
Offering type: Hardware or Manufacturing
Cost components: Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

Frozen Seafood Products: Sale of consumer packaged frozen seafood products including fish sticks, fillets, shrimp varieties, and crab cakes through retail grocery channels and direct e-commerce for merchandise.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Gorton's product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Gorton's manufactures and sells frozen seafood products, including fish sticks, breaded fish fillets, shrimp varieties, crab cakes, and salmon burgers. Products are made primarily from wild-caught Alaskan Pollock, cod, haddock, shrimp, and crab, flash-frozen at peak freshness for consumer home preparation. The company also supplies foodservice operators such as McDonald's for the East Coast Filet-O-Fish sandwich.

Product overview

Gorton's Seafood is a frozen seafood company founded in 1849, headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts, offering a diverse portfolio of frozen fish and shrimp products. The product line centers around breaded fish fillets (including Crispy Battered, Beer Battered, Crunchy Breaded, Air Fried, and Fish Sandwich Fillets), fish sticks, and shrimp products (Popcorn Shrimp, Butterfly Shrimp, Beer Batter Shrimp, Double Crunch Shrimp, Coconut Shrimp, and Garlic Butter Shrimp Scampi). The company also produces Crab Cakes, Pub Style Cod, Panko Breaded Haddock, and new Taco Tenders. Products are primarily made with wild-caught Alaskan Pollock, shrimp, crab, cod, and haddock, and are sold frozen for retail consumer preparation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

Gorton's Fish Sticks Breaded, frozen fish sticks made from wild-caught Alaskan Pollock, designed for quick oven, microwave, or air-fryer preparation at home by family consumers.
Gorton's Breaded Fish Fillets Breaded and battered frozen fish fillets made from wild-caught Alaskan Pollock, cod, and haddock, designed for convenient at-home cooking.
Gorton's Shrimp Products Prepared, breaded, and battered frozen shrimp varieties (Popcorn Shrimp, Crispy Shrimp, Butterfly Shrimp) for quick home preparation by consumers.
Gorton's Crab Cakes Frozen prepared crab cakes made with wild-caught crab meat, intended for retail consumer at-home preparation.
Gorton's Salmon Burgers Frozen salmon burgers sold through retail grocery for at-home preparation by consumers.
Gorton's Tilapia Frozen tilapia fillets sold through retail grocery channels for at-home preparation.

Companies that use Gorton's

Customer profile

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Gorton's technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API: No
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Gorton's partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Gorton's competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Direct peers

Birds Eye: Owned by Conagra Brands, Birds Eye is one of the largest U.S. frozen seafood and vegetable brands. Directly competes with Gorton's for frozen seafood shelf space in mainstream grocery and shares similar retail channels and target consumers.
SeaPak: U.S. frozen shrimp and seafood brand with comparable breaded/battered product format. Competes head-to-head in the frozen seafood aisle and shares the same retail grocery distribution model.
Trident Seafoods: Vertically integrated U.S. seafood company producing frozen breaded fish products and supplying major QSR chains. Directly comparable in foodservice scale and frozen retail seafood portfolio.
Highliner Foods: North American frozen seafood manufacturer and brand operator with strong retail private-label and branded business. Closely comparable in product format, channel mix, and customer base.
Mrs. Paul's / Van de Kamp's: Conagra-owned frozen seafood brands covering fish sticks, fillets, and prepared seafood. Direct shelf competitors with overlapping product formats and identical retail distribution.
Icelandic Group: Vertically integrated frozen seafood company with strong North American presence. Comparable in species mix, processing capabilities, and foodservice/retail split.

Broad incumbents

Conagra Brands: Diversified packaged foods major whose portfolio includes Birds Eye and Mrs. Paul's frozen seafood. Broad incumbent competitor with significantly wider product breadth and retailer leverage.
McCain Foods: Global frozen food giant with growing frozen seafood and QSR supply presence. Broad incumbent competing for the same retail frozen and foodservice contracts as Gorton's.
Tyson Foods: Diversified protein manufacturer with frozen prepared foods and foodservice supply capabilities. Broad incumbent that competes for QSR volume and frozen retail protein share.

Others

Sysco: Largest U.S. foodservice distributor. While not a direct competitor, Sysco is a key distribution intermediary to restaurant customers in the same QSR/foodservice channel where Gorton's operates.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Gorton's financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Gorton's leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Gorton's funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Gorton's M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gorton's

What does Gorton's do?

Is Gorton's a public or private company?

Gorton's is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.

When was Gorton's founded?

Gorton's was founded in 1849. It employs 101 to 250 people.

Where is Gorton's based?

Gorton's is headquartered in Gloucester, United States, in the North America region.

How does Gorton's make money?

One revenue line is on record: frozen Seafood Products.

Who are Gorton's's main competitors?

Direct peers on record are Birds Eye, SeaPak, Trident Seafoods, Highliner Foods, Mrs. Paul's / Van de Kamp's and Icelandic Group. Broad incumbents are Conagra Brands, McCain Foods and Tyson Foods. Sysco is listed as an others.

Does Gorton's have an API?

No public API is recorded for Gorton's.

What industry is Gorton's in?

Gorton's's product category is Frozen Seafood. Its primary akta.pro industry code is CRADADAG, Frozen Seafood Meals & Value-Added Seafood, with a secondary code of AFAKACAG, Frozen Meat, Poultry & Seafood Manufacturing. Its NAICS code is 31171 and its SIC code is 2092.