GLOUCESTER, MASS. — Gorton’s Seafood celebrates its 175^th anniversary this year since the manufacturer of frozen seafood products was founded in 1849.

Lisa Webb, vice president of operations for Gorton’s, said the company’s longevity and success is tied to its commitment to producing high-quality products. That quality, however, cannot be achieved without supplier partners equally committed to that charge. 

“We’re very careful in the selection with our suppliers so we uphold our high-quality, rigorous standards,” Webb said. “It’s that commitment to quality and to continually improve and grow.”

Didion Milling is one of those supplier partners that enabled Gorton’s to maintain its mission and quality through the pandemic. For its commitment to quality and service, the milling company has twice been awarded Commodity Supplier of the Year.

Didion Milling became a supplier for Gorton’s in 2019 when the seafood manufacturer was looking for contingency suppliers for corn flour for coatings in its Specialty Products business unit.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, having approved suppliers on contingency lists was common practice for Gorton’s so that the company didn’t miss a beat in case of issues with availability from its primary suppliers.

“To be on the approved list, suppliers have to clear some key quality hurdles including a strict facility audit, adherence to stringent specification requirements, scorecard performance tracking, annual continuous improvement plans,” Webb explained. “There are so many key criteria, and we validate those year over year, so once your company is on the list, you have to show that you can sustain our requirements.”

Didion Milling met those requirements five years ago for Gorton’s Specialty Products business unit. Since then, Webb said the company has become one of the unit’s top-performing suppliers.

“They go above and beyond because they take pride in quality and service,” she said.

Gorton’s uses a monthly score card to rank suppliers who operate in different categories and business units and help acknowledge which partners are meeting the company’s needs and standards. During the pandemic, Didion stood out, and in 2021, the family-owned milling company that started out as a contingency supplier won Commodity Supplier of the Year for Gorton’s Specialty Products.

“Didion stepped it up for us at the beginning of the partnership and helped us get through the increased consumer demand we saw with people eating more frozen foods at home,” Webb said. “Having Didion be a part of that made a significant impact on our ability to serve our consumers.”

Didion won the award again in 2023. Riley Didion, chief executive officer of Didion Milling, acknowledged the honor of receiving this award.

“We’re probably our toughest critic, but it is rewarding when someone you value, respect and have a good relationship with acknowledges the hard work you’ve done and you get to take that message back to your team,” he said. “It’s such an honor to say to the team, ‘What you do matters. When you take the extra step, it matters.’”

The fact that Didion Milling is family owned stands out to both Didion and Webb as a factor for the milling company’s commitment to quality product and service.

“They’ve beaten out some tough competition in the past few years because they’ve delivered nearly 100% perfection over the past two years and been 100% on time across their full track record,” Webb said. “They take so much pride in service and quality because their name is attached.”

Didion believes being a family-owned company has led the milling company to have a different approach and perspective than others.

“Because we’re family owned, we see business and customer relationships over a longer period of time,” he explained. “When we as a company make investments, we’re not always doing it because it’s good for September or October; we’re making the investment because it’s good for the next 10 years.”

In addition to Didion Milling’s commitment to going above and beyond in both quality and service, the company sees itself as an extension of its customers, which impacts the company’s approach to customer service. The company’s size also helps it stay nimble, able to pivot quickly to meet customer needs. Webb has experienced all of this.

“What really sets Didion Milling apart is they feel like an extension of our specialty products business,” she said. “We have a strong relationship with most of our suppliers, but Didion is more of an extension of our business. They go above and beyond with additional support about commodities to make sure we’re offering the best value for our customers. It's the commitment to continuous improvement, working together on cost-saving initiatives, ensuring we don’t have quality issues and the timely deliveries, so we don’t have any issues with our customers.”

Gorton’s has built a strong network of reliable, quality suppliers that it holds accountable year after year. This strong network and commitment to quality has ensured the company’s success over the past 175 years, according to Webb.

“We’ve always had a commitment to make high-quality seafood accessible to everyone,” she said. “Over our company’s history we’ve focused on consumer needs and evolved and innovated to meet those needs as they’ve changed.”

This spirit of innovation has kept the company relevant across generations, and even as Gorton’s looked to celebrate its milestone anniversary, it has connected with consumers of all ages.

“We’ve seen an outpouring of excitement from consumers around our anniversary and they want to support it,” Webb said. “Consumer research we conducted around the anniversary showed that for consumers, we’re a trusted brand that stands for quality. Especially with the younger consumers, which have been our biggest opportunity, they realize that you can’t have been around for 175 years without a commitment to quality. They’ve learned more about Gorton’s because of the anniversary.”

The company has plans to celebrate the anniversary locally in September with company and community events, but Gorton’s has been celebrating online all summer with its 175 surprise acts of yoy campaign  ‘Yellow Out of the Blue.’ The campaign started in June with a challenge to spread random acts of joy associated with the company’s signature yellow —— such as an unexpected delivery of yellow balloons, planting yellow flowers or donating yellow foods to a food pantry.

Webb noted the company initially set a goal for 175 acts of joy and has reached 350 so far.