Tampa Maid Foods is a customer driven, marketing oriented, quality and service conscious company. Our mission is to be the leading provider of innovative shellfish and specialty seafood products to the food industry.

In 1971 Watkins Associated Industries purchased Tampa Maid Sea Products, a small shrimp packer based in Tampa, Florida. At the time, the company processed about 10,000 pounds weekly of various commodity and value-added shrimp and seafood products. Procuring domestic raw shrimp along the gulf coast through company owned waterfront facilities from Key West to Brownsville, Texas, Tampa Maid flourished and expanded the Tampa processing facility several times. In 1987 Tampa Maid purchased a seafood specialty company, Bayou Foods from General Mills and brought the renowned Cap'n Joe brand of crab specialty items to the product lineup. Tampa Maid purchased a competitor, Bee Gee Shrimp in 1997 and moved operations from Tampa to the acquired company's processing facility in Lakeland, Florida. In 2006, Tampa Maid acquired Cox’s Wholesale Seafoods in Tampa. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Tampa Maid, Cox’s (www.coxseafood.com) is the premier supplier of domestic wild-caught Key West Pink shrimp to the retail and foodservice markets. Working together, the two companies provide a variety of both imported as well as domestically produced seafood products for their customers. Today we source, process and distribute millions of pounds of premium seafood annually.

Tampa Maid Foods is in the business of sourcing, processing and marketing quality value-added shellfish and specialty seafood as well as commodity raw and cooked shrimp from around the world to the foodservice and retail markets. Tampa Maid's primary expertise is in coated products. We have world-class product development as well as processing capabilities to coat seafood products utilizing the full spectrum of available coating formulas from bread crumbs and cracker meals to flours and batters for both "to be fried" as well as "oven-ready" product applications.

Our state-of-the-art facility is dedicated to processing, product development and storage. Tampa Maid's plant is under the continuous voluntary inspection of the United States Department of Commerce (U.S.D.C.) and we subscribe to several inspection services such as the A.I.B. (American Institute of Baking) which help insure our adherence to high standards of good manufacturing practices, sanitation and overall food safety.

Tampa Maid also sources both commodity and value-added seafood products from our supplier partners world-wide. We require our suppliers to meet the same stringent standards for food quality and product safety that we have set for our own manufacturing facilities. In addition to our specifications, standards and inspections, these supplier facilities must also meet the requirements of recognized third party food-safety audits.

The health of our oceans is of great importance to Tampa Maid. Ocean Trust is recognized as a premier organization for understanding, maintaining and restoring the world’s fisheries. As a strong supporter of Ocean Trust, we are working to better understand the status of our source fisheries and ways to insure the protection and sustainability of the ocean-caught and aquaculture seafood we process and market to the industry.

OUR FAMILY MANAGEMENT

Tampa Maid is a subsidiary of WAI (Watkins Associated Industries). WAI is a highly successful business comprised of trucking, food processing and real estate development. This privately held corporation is in its third generation of Watkins family management. Our family-management creates a special culture throughout the organization and instills a sense of pride in our employees that shows through in the products and services we provide for our customers.