Coastal Enterprises Inc.
Look’s Gourmet Food Company, Whiting, MA
In 1917, Willard M. Look founded the East Machias Canning Company on a wharf at the head of Holmes Bay in Whiting, Maine, and soon developed a reputation for selling canned crabmeat and lobster with an authentic, fresh-off-the-docks taste.
East Machias Canning was one of more than 100 multiproduct food canneries that once flourished in Maine. But by 2002, it was the last one standing. Managed by Mr. Look’s son, it had seven employees and annual sales of $800,000.
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One man who wasn’t about to let the old cannery die was Mike Cote.
In 2003, Mr. Cote—a Maine native and a 25-year veteran of the natural and specialty foods industry—purchased East Machias Canning and set out to continue handcrafting and hand packing specialty seafood in small batches, the way people on the Maine coast had always done. With a nod to its founder, he christened his new business Look’s Gourmet Food Company.
Early on, Mr. Cote formed a productive partnership with Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI). Established in 1977, CEI provides financing and support for the development of job-creating small businesses, natural resources industries, community facilities, and affordable housing. Its primary market is Maine, but in recent years it has expanded its programs to northern New England and upstate New York.
CEI provided significant venture capital to help the new Look’s Gourmet Food Company to develop its business model. It also provided technical assistance in branding and marketing. Today, Look’s still uses many of the handling and canning processes that Willard Look developed, but its impact has greatly expanded. There are now 26 employees—a significant economic contribution to its coastal community of 2,200—and sells its products nationwide, under the Bar Harbor Foods label, in supermarkets, natural food stores, and other specialty food outlets.
“Look’s makes a wholesome product, and it is creating jobs in rural Maine,” says Ron Phillips, President of CEI. “They represent a true triple-bottom-line investment involving the nexus of economic impact, social equity, and environmental stewardship. We are happy to be able to support them and to help them grow.”
