Look's Gourmet Food, which operates the last seafood cannery in Maine and does business as Bar Harbor Foods, has announced to its 20 employees in Whiting that the facility will be closed next month. In 2016 Sea Watch International purchased Look's Gourmet Food, which has a rich history spanning over 108 years and operates four facilities, including the one in Whiting.
      The company was founded in 1917 by Willard Look as the East Machias Canning Company and later known as the A.M. Look Canning Company. Look developed the process for canning crab and lobster meat. Employing local people living along that stretch of Holmes Bay in Whiting, the business thrived, as most did in that day, by providing a service and producing much needed products for the country.
      Over the decades, business slowed. In 2003, Michael Cote and Cynthia Fisher saw an opportunity to reinvent the struggling company and acquired it, based on their shared passion for the area of Maine and their background experience in food manufacturing with Pepperidge Farms. Since then, Look's has been producing fresh and quality packed food, such as whole Maine cherrystone clams, clam and lobster juices and the classic Bar Harbor clam chowder, plus 30 other products.
      General Manager Mike Sansing recently advised employees of the change in business location. "After careful consideration and extensive evaluation of our current business needs, we have made the painful decision to close our Maine facility and relocate our operation to the Sea Watch Milford, Delaware, facility," he stated. "This decision is part of an overall restructuring of our business, which is necessary to address changing market conditions and ensure the long term success of our company and positioning our company for future growth. I want to thank our employees for the hard work, extra hours and ability to always be flexible."
      Employees will receive severance packages when the facility closes on December 14. Sansing says, "We've been working with businesses to try and find employment for those employees. Most of them will have other jobs when the facility closes."
      The Whiting plant will continue to house the Bar Harbor Foods office, and there are no plans to sell the building.