Ruggiero Seafood Revenue and Competitors

Ruggiero Seafood is a culmination of five generations of experience in the seafood business which started in a small fishing village in Italy. The business as we know it today began in 1928 when Andrew Ruggiero started a small seafood business. In a few years it became a large and successful retail fish market. In 1960, he was joined by his brother Francesco who came to America to help him with his growing business. The fish market thrived and expanded into a wholesale market, selling fish to the finest New York restaurants and quality outlets. Francesco’s son Rocco, now the president of Ruggiero Seafood, joined the family business in1971. After being in the business several years, he realized there was a growing demand for calamari. Abundant in the Atlantic Ocean off the eastern shore of the United States, it was not being fished and processed locally even though Lologo Pealei calamari was a superior species to the imported verity. Rocco Ruggiero revolutionized the American calamari industry by designing state of the art equipment that could clean American caught calamari quickly and inexpensively, making it competitive with the hand prepared imports. In 1981 Rocco opened the first Ruggiero seafood processing plant. This plant was the first of its kind to process fresh, frozen and breaded products from locally caught calamari. Ruggiero also markets prepared food such as; lightly breaded calamari rings, calamari fries, and natural gourmet Seafood Salads for both the food service and retail markets.