So how did we get here?
It began and continues today with a time-honored promise of freshness and authenticity. Our consistently high and industry leading standards have stood the test of time. No shortcuts, just generations of doing it right.
A Snapshot of Handy's Milestones
1894
John T. Handy establishes company.
With over 120 years in the industry, Handy is America's oldest seafood processor, and we're proud to say that our company continues to be small and family-owned.
Since the beginning, Handy has operated from the beautiful shores of Crisfield, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Known for being home to the world's best soft shell crabs, crab meat and crab cakes, Crisfield was once a small village. When the potential for seafood was discovered a long time ago, the quiet fishing town quickly grew and was once known as the "Seafood Capital of the World"
Handy becomes the first company to process soft shell crabs.
Handy is the first soft shell crab processor to be federally inspected under a voluntary USDC program.
Handy begins flying live soft shell crabs to Tokyo and exports frozen soft shell crabs to Europe and the Pacific Rim.
Handy introduces high quality 70% crab meat crab cakes to restaurants that had previously been making their own.
Handy introduces handmade all-natural crab cakes to the marketplace and institutes a new process in which crab meat is re-picked under black lights to remove shell fragments while maintaining product integrity.
Handy expands into crab meat processing.
Handy sets a Guinness Book World Record for the largest crab cake, which weighs in at just over 200 lbs. Proceeds from the sales of crab cake sandwiches made from the enormous crab cake are donated to the United Way of Delaware.
Handy introduces the world’s first and only certified gluten-free crab cakes.
Handy introduces its new Crab Cake Combo – 4 grades of crab meat layered in one can. It’s the whole crab! Makes awesome crab cakes.
