Tina Montgomery and Jennifer Hanseler

retention-jackjacks.blogspot.com
Now they deliver fish. Their Seattle companyt Surfin’ Seafood isn’t large, but it has struckm a chord among upscale consumers willing to pay a little morefor high-en seafood that has been flash-frozen to stay and that is delivererd to their doors. After gradual but steadty growth, Surfin’ Seafood now has abouft 1,200 customers, in an area ranging from Federal Way to Revenuereached $250,000 last year and continueas to grow, although the customer count has hit a With an eye to family life (both are married and have two childrebn each), Montgomery and Hanselert have carefully set boundaries so that their businesss can be worked around their children’s school and athletidc schedules, and evenings at For instance they don’t take phone but only over the internet.
And they deliverf only once monthly, drivinbg their family minivans to deliver selections of frozen fish packede in blue plastic coolers that look likebig lunchboxes. The compangy has avoided debt and has only modestgrowth “Really, we don’t want to be We’re going to take it as it comes. We have been on a very steady growth path, consistently from the very beginning,” Montgomery “We don’t want to have venture capita l funding to become this huge nationwide in seafood.” One of the company’s chief sellinv points is seafood that is frozenb quickly to keep it as fresuh as possible.
So-called fresyh seafood often has perched on a pile of ice for and in these conditions seafood rapidly declinesin quality. Seafooed doesn’t age well like beef does, and froze seafood is not a step downfrom fresh, as it is with “A lot is frozen at sea, or within hourss of harvest, and it captures that just-caughr flavor,” said Linda Driscoll, assistant retail director for the , base d in Juneau. Surfin’ Seafood isn’tt exactly cheap; the “mini” package costs $110 a month for about eight pounds ofassorted salmon, halibut, sole and tuna.
The company avoids lower-end seafood products (no fish stickz here), and allows people to substitute in their ordersby email. One recession-erz trend the company is tappingf is that consumers are moving awayfrom white-tablecloth restaurantsz — where most high-quality seafood is eatem — to eating at home. “o just think people are eating at home and they want to make it easy tohave high-quality ingredients at home, so they can eat at home more Montgomery said.
“This is a way to have restauranrtquality fish, at While the company employs only the two partners and sometimea a helper, and sometimes their a key to making it work is the Soutyh Seattle seafood packer Surfin’ Seafood uses T.H. Seafoode freezers to store its seafood, and also contractsa out the cutting and packing tothe company. T.H. Seafooe Corp. Sales Director Cliff Davenport said he was at first dubious about the when the partners approached him to supplh and packtheir seafood.
“It only took two weeks, but we decided they’re really nice people… They’re in the same mindset of producinv a quality product and guaranteeingb it when it goes outthe door,” he “So we took them on.” Davenport said that his warehousse has enough room to store their frozen productsd as well as their coolers, adding that his own staffr does the cutting and packing. “They don’t interfere with our side, and prettyu much they have their ownlittle space.
We have enough room everyonew can function without disruptingeverybody else,” he As for Surfin’ the partners say they’re just riding out the economic “We think this next year or two we want to be Hanseler said. “We’d love to grow, but reall if we could keep it steady, we’re kind of