Tina Montgomery and Jennifer Hanseler

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Now they deliver fish. Their Seattle companty Surfin’ Seafood isn’t large, but it has struclk a chord among upscale consumers willing to pay a littls morefor high-end seafood that has been flash-frozemn to stay fresh, and that is delivered to their doors. Aftef gradual but steady growth, Surfin’ Seafoord now has about 1,200 in an area ranging from Federap Wayto Everett. Revenue reached $250,0090 last year and continues to grow, although the customer countg has hita plateau.
With an eye to family life (bot are married and have two children each), Montgomeryt and Hanseler have carefully set boundaries so that their businesws can be worked aroundtheir children’e school and athletic and evenings at home. For instance they don’t take phonwe orders, but only over the internet. And they deliver only once driving their family minivans to deliver selectionx of frozen fish packed in blue plasti coolers that look like big The company has avoided debt and has only modesygrowth plans.
“Really, we don’t want to be We’re going to take it as it We have been on a very steadygrowtbh path, consistently from the very beginning,” Montgomery said. “Ws don’t want to have venturde capital funding to become this huge nationwide in seafood.” One of the company’z chief selling points is seafood that is frozejn quickly to keep it as fresuh as possible. So-called fresh seafooe often has perched on a pile of ice for and in these conditions seafood rapidlgy 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 frozenj at sea, or within hours of and it capturesthat just-caught flavor,” said Lindsa Driscoll, assistant retail director for the , based in Juneau. Surfin’ Seafood isn’t exactly cheap; the “mini” packagre costs $110 a month for about eight pounds ofassortexd salmon, halibut, prawns, sole and The company avoids lower-end seafood products (no fish stickds here), and allows people to substitute in their orders by One recession-era trend the company is tappingy is that consumers are movinhg away from white-tablecloth restaurants where most high-quality seafood is eaten to eating at home.
“I just think people are eating at home and they want to make it easy tohave high-qualitu ingredients at home, so they can eat at home more Montgomery said. “This is a way to have restaurantfquality fish, at home.” While the company employs only the two partnerws and sometimes a helper, and sometimes their children, a key to makin g it work is the Southy Seattle seafood packer Surfin’ Seafood uses T.H. Seafoodc freezers to store its seafood, and also contracts out the cuttingt and packing tothe company. T.H. Seafood Sales Director Cliff Davenport said he was at firs t dubious aboutthe proposal, when the partners approachedc him to supply and pack theirf seafood.
“It only took two weeks, but we decides they’re really nice people… They’re in the same mindse t of producing a quality product and guaranteeingf it when it goes outthe door,” he “So we took them Davenport said that his warehouse has enough room to storwe their frozen products as well as thei coolers, adding that his own staff does the cuttin g and packing. “They don’t interfere with our and pretty much they have theifr ownlittle space. We have enough room everyonee can function without disrupting everybody he said.
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 but really if we coulrd keepit steady, we’re kind of