Taylor Shellfish Company

{{Short description|American seafood company}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Taylor Shellfish Company

| logo = Taylor Shellfish logo.png

| type =

| industry = Seafood

| fate =

| predecessor =

| successor =

| founded =

| founder =

| defunct =

| hq_location_city = Shelton, Washington

| hq_location_country = United States

| area_served =

| key_people =

| products = Oysters, clams, mussels, geoduck

| owner =

| num_employees = 480

| num_employees_year = 2010

| parent =

| website = {{URL|taylorshellfishfarms.com}}

}}

File:Taylor Shellfish oyster farm store - Samish, WA.jpg]]

Taylor Shellfish Company is an American seafood company based in Shelton, Washington. It is the country's largest producer of aquaculture (farmed) shellfish and has locations across Western Washington. The Taylor family started raising Olympia oysters in the 1920s. In the current form, the company, privately held,[https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=4541709 Bloomberg corporate profile], retrieved 2017-10-31 was started in 1969{{citation|title=Growth spurt: Taylor Shellfish Co. shows no signs of slowing|author=Jessica Hathaway|work=National Fisherman|publisher=Diversified Communications|date=August 14, 2017|url=https://www.nationalfisherman.com/west-coast-pacific/growth-spurt-taylor-shellfish-co-shows-no-signs-of-slowing/}} as Taylor United by brothers Edwin and Justin Taylor, grandsons of James Y. Waldrip, an early Washingtonian who came to Seattle to work rebuilding after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 before moving south and founding the Olympia Oyster Company in the 1890s.{{sfn|Walsh|2009|p=191}}{{citation|title=Taylor Shellfish Farms: Ebb and flow|author=Connie Adams|date=February 2017|work=Seattle Dining!|publisher=Mixed Media Publishing|url=http://www.seattledining.com/Current/1702/taylor_shellfish_part_1_2017.aspx}}{{citation|title=Shell Game – Oysters Are At The Top Of The Food Chain At Taylor Shellfish In Shelton|author=Shelby Gilje|newspaper=The Seattle Times|date=March 11, 1998|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19980311/2738885/shell-game----oysters-are-at-the-top-of-the-food-chain-at-taylor-shellfish-in-shelton}}{{citation|title=Family Business Awards: Large Companies|author=Dana Neuts|work=Seattle Business|date=December 2010|url=http://seattlebusinessmag.com/article/family-business-awards-large-companies}} Waldrip's company farmed the Olympia oyster found only in South Puget Sound.{{sfn|Walsh|2009|p=193}} Justin Taylor, born 1921, the oldest oyster farmer on Puget Sound in the early 2000s, died in 2011.{{citation|title=Oyster Mogul Has Spent 51 Years Building a Niche in Washington's Puget Sound|date=November 7, 2003|author=Bart Ripp|newspaper=Tacoma News Tribune|via=HighBeam|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109985645.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107055555/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-109985645.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 7, 2017}}{{citation|title=Justin Taylor obituary|newspaper=The Daily Olympian|date=February 24, 2011|via=legacy.com|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theolympian/obituary-preview.aspx?n=justin-e-taylor&pid=148833510|access-date=2017-10-31}}{{citation|newspaper=The Seattle Times|title=Modest shellfish mogul, environmental pioneer; Justin Taylor, 1921-2011; Obituary|date=February 23, 2011|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/modest-shellfish-mogul-environmental-pioneer/}}

Taylor Shellfish harvests more than {{convert|2000000|lb}} of clams annually as of the 2010s;[http://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurants/wa/shelton/taylor-shellfish-farms-restaurant Taylor Shellfish Farms], Food Network, accessed 2017-10-31 30% of the company's sales were in-shell oysters as of 2005.{{citation|title=Local oyster growers get boost from Katrina|newspaper=The Seattle Times|date=October 8, 2005 |author=Choy Leng Yeong|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-oyster-growers-get-boost-from-katrina/}} As of the late 1990s the company was one of the top ten employers in Mason County, Washington, and farmed oyster beds at their Oakland Bay headquarters and elsewhere around Hood Canal and Puget Sound including Totten Inlet (Oyster Bay), Eld Inlet, Samish Bay, Willapa Bay, and Whidbey Island. By 2010, the company had 480 employees and annual revenue over $50 million.

The company has operated oyster bars under the Taylor Shellfish Farms brand since 2014. Three are in Seattle including Capitol Hill and Pioneer Square,{{sfn|Nims |2016|p=213}} one in Downtown Bellevue beginning late 2017;{{citation|title=New to Lincoln Square|work=425 Magazine|author= Lauren Foster | date=January 24, 2017|url=http://425magazine.com/new-lincoln-square/}}{{citation|work=Seattle Met|title=So Many New Places Are Opening in the Lincoln Square Expansion|author= Rosin Saez|date=October 31, 2017|url=https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2017/10/31/so-many-new-places-are-opening-in-the-lincoln-square-expansion}} and there are farm stores on Chuckanut Drive in Skagit County,{{citation|title=Best oyster bars in America|work=Travel & Leisure|author=Meredith Bethune |date=September 12, 2014|url=http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/best-oyster-bars-in-america/7|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150217174158/http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/best-oyster-bars-in-america/7 |archive-date=2015-02-17}}{{citation|title=Aw, shucks! An oyster-lover's tour of the Northwest|author=Helen Anders|newspaper=Austin American-Statesman|date=August 7, 2013|via=The Seattle Times|url=http://old.seattletimes.com/html/travel/2021551577_oystertournorthwestxml.html}} and in Shelton.