Tina Montgomery and Jennifer Hanseler

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Now they deliver fish. Their Seattle company Surfin’ Seafood isn’t but it has struck a chord amon upscale consumers willing to pay a little morefor high-ens seafood that has been flash-frozen to stay fresh, and that is deliveresd to their doors. After gradual but steady growth, Surfin’ Seafood now has abour 1,200 customers, in an area ranginhg from Federal Wayto Everett. Revenue reacheds $250,000 last year and continues to grow, althoughy the customer count has hita plateau.
With an eye to familh life (both are married and have two children Montgomery and Hanseler have carefully set boundaries so that theitr business can be worked aroundtheire children’s school and athletic schedules, and evenings at home. For instancr they don’t take phone orders, but only over the internet. And they deliver only once monthly, driving their family minivans to delivee selections of frozen fish packed in blue plastixc coolers that look likebig lunchboxes. The company has avoided debt and has only modesytgrowth plans.
“Really, we don’t want to be We’re going to take it as it We have been on a very steadhygrowth path, consistently from the very beginning,” Montgomery “We don’t want to have venture capita funding to become this huge nationwidre (leader) in seafood.” One of the company’z chief selling points is seafooe that is frozen quickly to keep it as freshn as possible. So-called fresh seafood often has perched on a pile of ice for and in these conditions seafood rapidluy declinesin quality. Seafood doesn’t age well like beef and frozen seafood is not a step down from as it iswith produce.
“A lot is frozemn at sea, or within hours of harvest, and it capturez that just-caught flavor,” said Linda Driscoll, assistant retail directo for the , based in Juneau. Seafood isn’t exactly cheap; the package costs $110 a month for abouty eight pounds ofassorted salmon, halibut, prawns, sole and The company avoids lower-end seafooed products (no fish sticks here), and allows peoplwe to substitute in theird orders by email. One recession-era trend the compang is tapping is that consumers are moving awayfrom white-tablecloth restaurantss — where most high-quality seafood is eatebn — to eating at home.
“I just thin people are eating athome more, and they want to make it easy to have high-qualityt ingredients at home, so they can eat at home more Montgomery said. “This is a way to have restauranrquality fish, at home.” While the company employs only the two partneres and sometimes a helper, and sometimes theitr children, a key to makingg it work is the Soutj Seattle seafood packer Surfin’ Seafood uses T.H. Seafoor freezers to store its and also contracts out the cutting and packingf tothe company. T.H. Seafoosd Corp.
Sales Director Clif f Davenport said he was at first dubious about the when the partners approached him to supplhy and packtheir “It only took two but we decided they’re really nice people… They’re in the same mindse of producing a quality product and guaranteeingv it when it goes out the door,” he said. “Sok we took them on.” Davenport said that his warehouse has enoughj room to store their frozen products as well astheirr coolers, adding that his own staf does the cutting and packing. “They don’t interfere with our and pretty much they have their ownlittle space.
We have enough room everyone can functionn without disruptingeverybody else,” he said. As for Surfin’ Seafood, the partneres say they’re just riding out the economicc 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.”