‘It’s a shame’: Dickie’s Seafood goes out of business, looks to sell longtime Northside facility

Dickie’s Seafood had rebuilt its Northside factory after a fire destroyed its previous facilities in June 2020.

Unable to fully regain its momentum after a 2020 fire gutted its longtime Northside facility, Dickie’s Seafood has boiled its last shrimp.

The nearly 50-year-old Richmond company, known for its deviled crab and boiled shrimp that was sold in grocery stores, has ceased operations and is in the process of selling off its assets, including its 16,000-square-foot building at 1508 Brook Road.

Frank Fay, Dickie’s CEO, told BizSense in an interview earlier this month that the closure was due to a combination of factors sparked by the fire, related legal battles with insurance companies, the pandemic’s effects on the economy and subsequent consumer inflation.

“It’s a shame. It was a very difficult decision that we made to shut the operation down,” said Fay. “The company being in business for 46 years and having gotten through the fire… I hate saying it but we have been, more or less, a victim of circumstances since the fire.”

The fire at the Northside facility took place on June 5, 2020, bringing operations there to a standstill. The company promptly set out to rebuild and reopen, which it did in the summer of 2021 after spending more than $5 million.

But by the time it reopened, the pandemic had taken a toll on the economy, both from a consumer perspective and for the many grocery stores Dickie’s did business with.

“Fourteen months to rebuild, is 14 months you’re out of the market and off the shelf,” Fay said. “We couldn’t get back into all the retailers because they found substitutes.”

Inflation triggered by the pandemic also was an issue that continued to plague the company up until its end this year.

“The economy never came back fully for our company,” Fay said. “We came back online in 2021 just when people really started getting hit hard in consumer prices. Because selling shrimp and selling crab is a luxury item, our retailers, Kroger, Food Lion and others, were all having difficulty keeping their prices down just for staples.

“The normal shopper had less disposable income. Luxury items across the board have suffered in the food retail business,” he said.

Another impediment, Fay said, was the time it took for the company to recoup insurance money for the losses it sustained in the fire. It waged a lawsuit against two contractors whose work it claims caused the fire seeking $10 million in damages for rebuilding costs and lost revenue.

After four years of legal wrangling and multiple lawsuits, the company finally received the last of its insurance proceeds in August. Fay declined to comment on the amount, saying only that the insurance money and selling off assets won’t be enough to make Dickie’s investors whole.

“When we looked at the final insurance settlement that we received, we thought to ourselves we’re going to be back in a cash flow problem in six months to a year,” he said, adding that the company had been borrowing money while waiting for the insurance settlement.

“It was a tough decision: do we bail out now or try to raise more funds until things turn around?’” Fay said.

Dickie’s Seafood CEO Frank Fay (center left in blue jacket) at the company’s reopening of its Northside facility in 2021. (BizSense file photo)

In a last ditch effort, the company launched a frozen crab and frozen shrimp product this year. The new line came with high hopes but also significant costs and Fay said the venture didn’t pan out after failing to catch on in the industry. It also was unable to raise additional funds from its investors.

Fay said the company’s board ultimately decided to cut its losses, pay off its vendors and sell off its assets.

The company first shut down temporarily in June, laying off the bulk of its nearly two dozen employees. The move to a permanent closure began in August and the process continues, with efforts to unload equipment and the building. Fay said the Northside property is under contract to be sold to an unidentified food processing company.

He said Dickie’s last day for its final two employees is this Friday, Nov. 1.

That brings to an end a run that began in 1978, when Richard “Dickie” Poh started the company. Fay said Poh was backed in those early days by childhood friend Jim Ukrop, who ran Richmond grocery store chain Ukrop’s.

Poh opened the Brook Road facility in the mid-90s. The company under Poh’s leadership came to an end about a decade ago when it fell into bankruptcy, due in part to the sale of Ukrop’s to another grocery chain. Ukrop’s had been among Dickie’s largest customers and Martin’s, the chain that bought it, didn’t continue that relationship, Fay said.

That’s where Dickie’s two current owners came in. Veteran’s Best and Sustainable Seafood Products bought the company out of bankruptcy, splitting their stakes at 48% and 52%, respectively, Fay said.

Under that new ownership, the company peaked at around $6 million in revenue and 40 employees on Brook Road. Fay said that peak could have gone higher if not for the fire.

“Had we continued we would have hit $8 million in revenue that year and it would have been the best year. We couldn’t get any higher than $3 million the last few years,” he said.

Fay said the decision to close wasn’t made lightly, given the company’s long run.

“We have 46 years of history, 46 years of customers still looking for product. We had employees that worked in the business since 1978. The two guys still working this month, one started in 1990 and the other in 1982,” Fay said.

There is, in the end, a chance the Dickie’s Seafood brand could live on. Fay said the name is among the assets that could be sold.

“Dickie’s does have a name and there is some value in it,” he said. “We’re trying an outreach to see if we can get somebody that might be interested in it.”