Since founders Tim Malley and the Scola brothers officially merged their respective businesses in 2006 to create Boston Sword and Tuna (BST), the seafood giants have quickly grown to become one of the largest suppliers of seafood in the U.S.
The company’s plant in Boston required a new floor finish that would provide a reliable and hygienic platform in the face of the challenging conditions experienced in such a large-scale seafood-processing plant — BST sold over 13 million pounds of fish last year.
“We were looking for a floor that was going to last, we wanted the materials to be very strong,” explained Michael Scola, president of BST. Flowcrete came highly recommended by another local seafood company.
To provide a clean, durable and hygienic surface, more than 10,000 square feet of Flowcrete Americas’ antimicrobial flooring system Flowfresh HF was applied in the cutting room, receiving area and packaging area of the warehouse.
“Sometimes you have the concrete and you get a crack, and then water gets underneath it. With this product, that doesn’t happen,” Scola said. “I think the material Flowcrete sells is phenomenal, I can’t count how many people have complimented us on these floors since we put them in,” Scola said.
Shotblasting was not sufficient preparation for the new floor and Flowcrete’s licensed applicator, Sil-Mar Construction Corporation, had to scarify and remove a significant amount of concrete to achieve a clean and solid base.
The single trowel down application was expertly executed with no primer or topcoat required and the Flowfresh accelerator meant that the floor was able to fully cure on schedule despite time constraints.
Additionally, BST wanted to upgrade the aesthetics of its floor as well its functionality in order to leave the right impression on their customer base. Scola explained that some areas of the floor were just cement.
“For us to be proud of what we do and the people that we want to sell, we wanted them to have a better facility, to show the cleanliness of it,” he said. “So we are very happy with it, and then, of course, the color picked out was perfect for us being in the seafood business — it looks like the ocean!”
The caliber of Flowcrete Americas’ resin systems mean that BST’s new floor finish will be able to last for an extended period of time with minimal maintenance.
“I think there is a greater return on having the plant looking like this rather than just cement on the floor,” Scola added. “They did a great job with it and they are very easy to keep clean.”
Maintaining hygiene standards is absolutely imperative at BST — another key reason Flowfresh HF was selected. Not only is the seamless, impermeable finish easy to clean, but it contains Polygiene, an antimicrobial additive which reduces 99.9 percent of all surface bacteria.
These sanitary advantages have made the heavy duty, chemical resistant cementitious urethane floor finish Flowfresh a popular choice in wet processing zones.
Overall, Boston Sword and Tuna was delighted with the end result and intends to work with Flowcrete Americas again on future projects.
For more information please visit www.flowcreteamericas.com.
