JANA BRANDS

Jana Brands was founded in 1970 by Steve Forman. Originally known as Commodity Sales, Jana Brands grew from a one man business in a one room office to a multi national, multi million dollar seafood company with offices and joint ventures around the world.

Jana Brands has been an innovative company since its inception.

In the 1970's Jana pioneered the Alaska King Crab Tail Meat industry by developing a way to add value to a product that was considered to have no commercial value. Throughout the 70's Jana Brands built the King Crab Tail Meat industry into a multi million dollar category.

In the 1980's Jana was one of the original pioneers of the surimi (imitation crab) industry in America. In the late 70's Jana recognized the potential for surimi products even though they were totally unknown in the United States. Traveling to Japan in 1980, Steve Forman formed an alliance with Taiyo (now known as Maruha) the largest seafood company in the world. Jana was contracted as the exclusive distributor of Taiyo's surimi products in North America. Imitation crab in America started as an imported product but developed into a domestic industry with new factories built in the United States during the 80's. When Jana Brands sold its branded surimi products division to a wholly owned subsidiary of Maruha in 1997 it was the largest independently owned distributor of surimi products in North America.

In the 90's Jana was the first company in the world to introduce 100% yield pouch pack tuna for use at the food service level. The research and development actually began in 1987 but an acceptable product was not introduced until the mid 90's. Today pouch tuna can be found on supermarket shelves and in the kitchens of thousands of restaurants throughout North America. Once again, Jana Brands led the way.

Also in the 90's Jana Brands provided ingenuity and creativity to the frozen tuna industry. By combining our marketing skills, with the technology of the Far East, we developed the first super premium frozen ahi tuna.

At the end of the 90's the Independent Purchasing Cooperative for Subway (the world's largest sandwich chain) honored Jana Brands as their "Vendor of the Millennium" in honor of the innovative contributions Jana had made to Subway from 1974 to the new millennium.

Our spirit of innovation continues in the 21st centrury. Jana again has made it's mark in the seafood industry by establishing itself as the leader in "thaw and serve" sushi category. We recognized the need, we identified the opportunities, and we created the perfect product.

At Jana Brands we strive to set trends in the food industry, not follow them. We believe in long term, mutually profitable relationships rather than short term, one sided gains. These principles are the foundation on which this company was built and they will remain the cornerstone on which Jana Brands will grow in the future.