Bremen-based Community Shellfish opens Connecticut outpost
Courtesy / Boe Marsh
Community Shellfish's sprawling seafood headquarters in Bremen.
From the docks along Maine's midcoast, trendy New York City area restaurants and tony seafood stores in Connecticut may seem far away.
But Boe Marsh, owner of Bremen-based dealer Community Shellfish, has a plan to put Maine lobster, oysters, clams and scallops directly in the hands of affluent consumers in those out-of-state markets.
Rather than selling the seafood harvests to a chain of distributors who make money on each transaction, Marsh has opened a warehouse in Bethel, Conn., to transport Community Shellfish’s catch directly to customers and reap more of the profit.
In the historical model, fish would be sold at the docks to a small outfit, which would then sell them to a larger distributor, which then would sell it to an even larger distributor.
“Bypassing that system means more money for those suppliers and harvesters in Maine,” Marsh told Mainebiz. “Our goal is to go more directly to the consumer. It's a pretty big market. It's rich territory."
Marsh expects about half of Community Shellfish’s products, which include oysters, clams, lobsters and processed lobster, to flow through the Connecticut facility and ultimately to restaurants, caterers and fish shops.
Its new 4,000-square-foot warehouse in Bethel can serve a 50-mile radius, reaching Westchester County and New York City, as well as Fairfield and Hartford, in Connecticut. Community Shellfish is buying coolers, freezers and lobster tanks and beefing up its distribution capabilities. It will also handle deliveries for customers.
“Bringing that money back to our fishermen and our producers — means more money for all parts of our supply chain. From the guy with a clam fork in the flats to the lobster harvesters. We’ll knock out the middle man and bring more money home to Maine,” Marsh said.
He declined to cite specific dollars, but said the new business, CommunityShellfishConnecticut LLC generally gets “substantially higher” money when selling closer to the end customer rather than through middlemen.
Buyers have had a very favorable response as more and more consumers want to know the provenance of their food, Marsh said.
“In the classic model, a lobster goes from Maine to Boston to Hunts Point. Products become nameless. But when it comes directly from Community Shellfish, you know it was in the water yesterday ... You can point to real Maine people behind the real Maine seafood,” Marsh said.
Community Shellfish also is building a network of outside vendors where it can be assured of ethical practices and quality and taking some of their product to the south, as well.
“We’re not only building this for us, but it will broaden markets for all the Maine seafood and shellfish harvesters and preferred vendors we work with,” Marsh said.
“It’s a vehicle to increase overall production of Community Shellfish. It will help us expand and be a larger business, which in turn means we can hire more, pay better and do more for Maine people,” Marsh said. “We want to be a conduit for Maine seafood.”
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