Tina Montgomery and Jennifer Hanseler

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Now they deliver fish. Their Seattlw company Surfin’ Seafood isn’t but it has struck a chord among upscalw consumers willing to pay a little morefor high-ende seafood that has been flash-frozen to stay fresh, and that is delivereed to their doors. After graduall but steady growth, Surfin’ Seafood now has about 1,20o customers, in an area ranging from Federal Way to Revenuereached $250,000 last year and continues to grow, althoug the customer count has hit a plateau.
With an eye to familgy life (both are married and have two children Montgomery and Hanseler have carefully set boundariesx so that their business can be workedf aroundtheir children’s schooo and athletic schedules, and eveningsz at home. For instance they don’rt take phone orders, but only over the internet. And they deliveer only once monthly, driving thei r family minivans to deliver selections of frozen fish packe d in blue plastic coolers that look like big The company has avoided debt and has only modestgrowtgh plans. “Really, we don’t want to be huge.
We’re going to take it as it We have been on a very steadygrowtn path, consistently from the very beginning,” Montgomert said. “We don’t want to have venture capital funding to becomer this hugenationwide (leader) in seafood.” One of the company’ds chief selling points is seafoodx that is frozen quicklu to keep it as freshh as possible. So-called fresh seafood often has perchec on a pile of icefor hours, and in theser conditions seafood rapidly declines in quality.
Seafood doesn’t age well like beef and frozen seafood is not a step down from as it iswith “A lot is frozen at sea, or within hours of and it captures that just-caught said Linda Driscoll, assistant retaipl director for the , based in Surfin’ Seafood isn’t exactly cheap; the package costs $110 a month for about eight pounds of assortef salmon, halibut, prawns, sole and tuna. The compangy avoids lower-end seafood products (no fish stickd here), and allows people to substitute in theid ordersby email.
One recession-era trenrd the company is tapping is that consumers are movingb awayfrom white-tablecloth restaurants — where most high-quality seafoo d is eaten — to eatin g at home. “I just think people are eating at home and they want to make it easy tohave high-qualit y ingredients at home, so they can eat at home more Montgomery said. “This is a way to have restauranftquality fish, at home.” While the compangy employs only the two partners and sometimesx a helper, and sometimes their children, a key to makinhg it work is the South Seattl e seafood packer Surfin’ Seafooed uses T.H.
Seafood freezers to stor e its seafood, and also contracts out the cutting and packing tothe T.H. Seafood Corp. Sales Director Cliff Davenportt said he was at firsgt dubious aboutthe proposal, when the partnerxs approached him to supply and pack theidr seafood. “It only took two weeks, but we decided they’rre really nice people… They’re in the same mindset of producin a quality product and guaranteeing it when it goes out the he said. “So we took them Davenport said that his warehouse has enoughb room to store their frozen products as well astheir coolers, adding that his own staff does the cuttin and packing.
“They don’t interfere with our and pretty much they have their ownlittlw space. We have enough room everyone can functiohn without disruptingeverybody else,” he said. As for Seafood, the partners say they’re just riding out the economif downturn. “We think this next year or two we want to be Hanseler said. “We’d love to but really if we could keepit we’re kind of happy.
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