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Chicken of the Sea is a packager and provider of seafood, owned by the Thai Union Group in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. The company was founded in 1914 when Frank Van Camp and his son bought the California Tuna Canning Company and changed its name to the Van Camp Seafood Company. The phrase “Chicken of the Sea”, first devised as a way to describe the taste, was so successful that soon it also became the company name. Chicken of the Sea sponsored a restaurant on a pirate ship at Disneyland from 1955 until 1969.
In 1963, Van Camp Seafood Company was purchased by Ralston Purina. In 1988, Ralston sold its Van Camp division to an Indonesian corporation, P. Mantrust, which had financial problems, and the primary creditor, Prudential Life Insurance Company, became the majority owner. Gann, American owner of Caribbean Marine Service, Co. Singapore in 1972 dealing in tuna and tuna products headed by Renato Curto, president and majority shareholder.
The new owners changed the name of Van Camp Seafood Company to Chicken of the Sea International. In 2000, Tri-Marine International Inc and Edmund A. Gann sold their 50 percent interest in Chicken of the Sea to Thai Union International, Inc. Thai Union the sole owner of the company. Chicken of the Sea International and Tri-Union International LLC merged into one company, still called Chicken of the Sea International.
In 2006, Thai Union formed a new division, Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods, to focus on sales of premium quality fresh and frozen seafood products. This division grew quickly, enhancing Chicken of the Sea’s brand awareness and distribution in the food service and retail industries. In May 2018, the company moved its headquarters from San Diego to El Segundo, California. The company’s official explanation for the name of their product is that, in the “old days”, fishermen referred to white albacore tuna as “chicken of the sea”. It was called this because of the white color of its flesh and mild flavor reminded them of chicken. The founder of the company thought this would be a unique name for a brand of tuna. Their advertising mascot, Catalina, a blonde mermaid with a golden scepter, was introduced in the 1950s and soon became a familiar product icon.