Photo by Petri Tuohimaa/Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Photo by Petri Tuohimaa/Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Lobster Buoys
Brendan and John Ready say their last name with a long E, but these sea-loving entrepreneurs are ready for anything—as long as it helps the industry they’ve loved since childhood.
John and Brendan Ready [pronounced REED-ee] fell in love with lobstering before just about anything else. At 7 and 8 years old, the brothers were already plying the waters of Alewife Cove, off the shore of Cape Elizabeth, building what would become a little empire in the never-easy world of the lobster industry.
It wasn’t long after that first love, though, that they found a second: a simple business concept—value-added—which, along with a remarkable work ethic and a couple of business degrees, drives the success of Ready Seafood, their wholesale lobster business, and Catch a Piece of Maine, their revolutionary direct-to-consumer company, with combined annual revenues north of $10 million.
“We used to watch the lobstermen out in front of our house, and they were our heroes,” says John, who turns 30 in September, 16 months ahead of his brother. Years later, John says, “many of them started selling to us, and one day, one of them said, ‘Listen, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t make my boat payment. My expenses are high. I’m not catching what I used to.’ We wanted to figure out how to make it work, for us and for him.”
They founded 3-year-old Catch a Piece of Maine, or Catch, as they call it, which packages the haul from one lobster trap for one year for $2,995. Customers get to know their lobsterman, see precisely where he caught their dinner and what went into the process, and receive a basket of everything needed for a lobster feast, from mussels and a Maine-made dessert to bibs, an offer to answer any cooking questions, and even a thank-you phone call.
“We’re selling the experience,” John says. “We’re giving people traceability and sustainability, a personal relationship, a look into the life of a lobsterman, and an appreciation for the industry and for Maine. That’s value-added.”
Fact is, value-added was in the brothers’ blood all along. In college, they drove their catch to Cape Cod and ferried it to Martha’s Vineyard, earning better prices—before their morning classes in the Boston area. When they started Ready Seafood in 2004, working absurdly long hours, they would pluck seaweed from Portland Harbor before packing lobsters, because it’s a better (though more expensive) medium than newspapers, and their customers appreciated it.
Maine Ahead talked to the Ready brothers about how their childhood obsession with lobster grew into a career, the launch of Catch a Piece of Maine, their current challenges, and their plans for growth.
Tell me about the two companies
John: Ready Seafood started as a traditional wholesale lobster company that buys and sells a tremendous amount of live lobster. It still is, but we do more internationally than a lot of people—about 40% of our business—primarily in Europe. We just moved into the Portland Ocean Terminal and built a tank that holds 125,000 pounds of lobster. We bring all these lobster back, break them down into different grades depending on customers’ needs, and then we pack out.
Brendan: We started Ready Seafood with the hope that we could play around with the model and find ways to add more value—and that’s what Catch a Piece of Maine does.
John: Catch is a community-supported fishery model. We sell shares of our catch directly to consumers around the country and in Maine. It’s about the experience, the traceability and the sustainability, and very personal. We send them videos of their lobsterman, on the boat, with personal messages. We started selling whole-trap shares, targeting high-end clientele, and we’ve created products at lower price-points over time, down to under $100. And this is important: We pay the lobsterman a 40-cents-per-pound premium. Last year prices were as low as $2.25, so 40 cents is a huge chunk of change if you’re catching 20,000 to 50,000 pounds. That bonus check can be the difference between them making money or not. That’s what the industry needs: cooperation, value-added products, and new ways of thinking.
You first got into lobstering when you were 7 and 8 years old. How?
John: Our uncle, a commercial lobsterman, took us out and we loved it. We worked with him, baiting the traps and taking the lobsters out, and so on. For the first few years we would get paid, literally, in old lobster traps. Cash at that age, what are you going to do with it? We wanted something we didn’t have—to be lobstermen. We got a small wooden skiff, and we had more pride for that boat than probably anything we have today. All through middle school and high school, we kept growing: 10 traps, 50 traps, 100 traps, bigger and bigger boats.
What was it about lobstering that attracted you?
Brendan: It was like an addiction. Out on the ocean, every day, nobody telling you what to do. The freedom when you get out there in the morning and the sun rises. Sometimes you’d be the only one out there and just take it all in. It was a lot of work, but every day is different. You hear a lot of guys complaining—“Oh, we don’t make enough money,” or whatever. There’s always something. But in the end, every guy chooses to stay. It’s not because they’re going to get rich. They’re never going to give it up because they love it. There’s something inside them, and there’s nothing else they’d rather be doing. Me, I never want to leave the water. Hopefully, at some point I’ll be able to get back there more often than I do.
When did it become a business?
John: My last year of high school, we put a lobster tank in our garage, to hold 1,500 pounds—it’s kind of cool, we’ve gone from 1,500 pounds to 125,000. We started trucking lobsters down to Mass. I’d be home on the weekend to haul my traps, and Sunday about midnight I’d load the truck up, head down, get rid of all my product, then drive the truck to the NU [Northeastern University] parking lot, get out, and go to class. I smelled like fish, and I’d been up for 15 hours already. People looked at me like I was crazy. Brendan did the same thing. But it was cool to us. We were doing it. That was probably our first real move.
How did you finance the company at first?
John: Right after we graduated, we had a little bit of money from lobstering, but we borrowed from our parents and got a $50,000 SBA loan. That paid the rent. Brendan and I were still lobstering. On Monday, I would go out lobstering, and whatever I caught, I’d sell to Ready Seafood. Brendan would do the same thing on Tuesday. We were like a regular lobsterman except we didn’t get paid. We did that for 18 months. Didn’t take a paycheck, lived on nothing. I slept on the top office floor all that time because I was too cheap or poor to pay rent. And let me tell you, you should’ve seen that place. Horrible. Rats below us. We were there all the time. We were selling lobster bait and taking in lobsters, so we had to be there whenever the first guy went out, at 3 in the morning, and whenever the last guy came in, at 10 at night. But you did what you needed to do.
What did you learn in those early days, from a business perspective, that still serves you well today?
John: Listen. Listen. Listen. The more you can learn, the better. I think we did that pretty well. We’d always ask a lot of questions and try to learn from the others in our industry. Respect the people who are involved, the people who’ve been there for 20 years before you. A lot of people come in and say, “I’m better than them. I don’t need to do this or that.” That’s the opposite of our strategy. We had so much respect for the older generation. We learned, and we were cautious, and we figured out where we fit.
We’re constantly hearing how fuel and other costs combined with flat prices are making lobstermen’s lives difficult. What are the realities of the lobster business today?
John: It’s the whole industry. You hear a lot about the lobstermen, but there’s no difference between them and companies like us, big or small. All of us are in the same boat. In this economy, it’s not just this industry. There are some lobstermen we deal with who are doing well. They’re running their lobster operation as a business. But a lot of lobstermen have never thought of it as a business. It’s their own thing, they’re independent, and maybe they’re not really aware of what their expenses are, or maybe they take two helpers and they really probably should only take one. We’re always trying to be more efficient, and that’s what I think the whole industry has come down to. Reduce your overhead any way you can. Instead of hauling six or seven days a week, maybe it makes sense to only haul four. It’s difficult, but we will succeed.
What are the big challenges? Is it simply supply and demand?
John: Lobster is seen as a luxury item, and it’s hard to convince people that they need to buy it. You can bring prices lower, which has moved the product, but it’s hard to bump those prices up. Another problem is credit—being able to find, in the whole distribution channel, people who will pay. There are a lot of companies that we sell to that are risky-as-hell accounts. We’re pushing our luck. Three years ago, the credit insurance companies were covering a lot of the people we sell to. Now, half of them, they won’t insure anymore. People are getting burned.
Last year we still had record landings. Even though you’ve heard about bad times, lobstermen are still catching a lot of lobster. The price is lower, but again, a lot of them have made it up on volume. You’re always going to hear how bad things are, that someone is not doing well, but the truth is, it’s all of us. I could either tell you it’s a horrible day or it’s a good day—it’s how you look at it.
And another thing: there are too many people in the industry. There’s too many lobstermen, too, and you’re chopping the pie into so many pieces. Some people won’t make it. I hope that doesn’t seem insensitive, but it’s the same as any business. The strongest will survive.
How did you come up with the idea for Catch a Piece of Maine?
John: When the lobstermen talked to us about how tough it was, we wanted to figure out a way to make a difference. We realized there are very few other young people like us—99% of the people that we do business with are twice our age. And we wanted to carry the industry forward. We knew we’d need to think differently, attract a different type of clientele. We worked on it for a year and a half, worked with our advisory board, and then we put it out there.
Was addressing those issues the inspiration for the business? How does the direct-to-consumer model address the issues?
Brendan: We wanted to diversify. It wasn’t something to solve all the problems overnight. It was, let’s start this thing, create a model, let people see what we’re doing, and try to educate our customers on how the lobster industry works. Catch is really very similar to selling a product, but so much of it is in the way you market it. It’s our way to leverage the Maine brand and increase that brand. We all have such a great place here. Let’s keep it that way and show other people why it’s such a great place.
You’ve been all over the national media, from Inc. magazine to CBS Sunday Morning. How did you get all that attention?
John: When we first launched the company, we wanted to make a splash and we wanted to really think differently about selling lobster. There was a lot more that we thought was valuable that wasn’t being taken advantage of, like the experience. People don’t get to see what we do on the water every day, but the people who do see it, they love it. It’s a lot more interesting to the media than if we’d decided to make Lobster Newburg.
Brendan: We created a board of advisors. We asked some of the most successful people in our area to assist us, which they did, because of the goodwill. They told us to put a press release out to the Associated Press, and we worked with a local company, and learned how to write a press release. We were advised to tell the story ourselves, so when reporters talked to us, they could see the passion, understand what we’re doing. The story—the lobstermen, the ocean, Maine—it’s a good story.
John: We’ve done an ungodly amount of interviews. It’s our way of getting out there, saying, “We have a great product from this great place. Enjoy it. This is what goes into it. This is why you should buy it directly from the harvester,” and so on.
What do you each bring to the table to lead the business?
Brendan: You need to have a really aggressive side in order to grow. Somebody has to say, “We’ve got to push outward, get bigger, try new things.” And somebody needs to say, “OK, let’s make the wise decision, be conservative, not get too big too fast.” I’m very conservative, and Johnny’s much more aggressive. I double-check everything, review all of the facts, analyze. John is out there on the front lines, finding opportunities, and pushing us to that first step.
John: We’re both interested in opening up markets, adding value, creating a work environment where our employees know the sky is the limit. That’s a very, very important thing. They are our eyes, and when we’re not there, we want them to do what’s best for the business, and know that what’s best for the business is best for them.
Brendan: They’re the key to it all. Your most important asset.
How do you get that message across, “the sky’s the limit?”
John: We’re very transparent. We don’t hide numbers. I like to make sure everyone’s happy, make sure no one’s overworked. We’d rather have less people working more hours making more money than watch the time clock. If you want to work 50–60 hours a week, go for it. And that’s very valuable to them. We have a young operation and we want everyone to stick with us. We have literally a 0% turnover. We want them to progress, walk up the ladder, take on a management position. One guy here used to go out and lobster with me; now he basically runs a lot of our company. The employees see that if they want to put in the time and the effort, there’s room for growth.
What challenges has growth presented to you?
Brendan: Where do I start? When you start a business, you’re used to doing everything on your own, and you have to learn to let some things go, to delegate, which is very difficult to do because you always think you do things best. We had to learn to build a team, set a hiring process, manage people. We thought everybody wanted to work like we did, and it was hard to find the right fit. But we learned over time, and we’ve done it. We have an unbelievable team. But that took time, to be able to go to bed at night and trust the people you hire and the program you have set up. Put it this way: If you told me six years ago that we would be at the point we’re at, it would have been scary. I would’ve thought I could never do this, especially so fast.
What are your long-term goals?
Brendan: Just to continue growing both companies, and to keep our team growing, with more responsibility. Our biggest thing is we want to grow our core team, to reward them for the hard work they’ve done for the past five years. Make them successful so they can raise their families and never have to worry about financial problems. I never want to be the biggest lobster company. I’m not trying to be a multimillionaire. I have no financial goals about money in my head. I don’t check my bank balance. I don’t care what clothes I wear, what car I drive. I don’t even have a car.
It’s a long-hours business. How do you manage to keep balance between business and personal life?
Brendan: This is our personal life. I know that’s not a great thing, but for us, being in the lobster industry and the working waterfront is what we always wanted. Growing up, that was our fun, our excitement. There was never a difference between work and fun. Today, you feel the difference. There are lot more responsibilities to deal with. Some days it feels like work, but the bulk of the days, it doesn’t. It’s fun. My coworkers are my best friends. Johnny’s here.
As you do grow and responsibility grows, and the stress, you do have to find ways to escape. But our way to do it, as messed up as it is, is lobstering. Instead of being in the office all day, my outlet is to go out in my little skiff and haul 100 traps. It’s the same with John. We still love it.
The Ready File
Born:
John Ready, Sept. 11, 1980; Brendan Ready, May 18, 1982. Both born in Portland, Maine.
Education:
Each has a bachelor’s in business, John from Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. (2004), Brendan from Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. (2004).
Careers:
After John won a business plan competition at Northeastern, they founded Ready Seafood in 2004, in a small facility on Hobson’s Pier. This spring, they moved to the Maine State Pier and opened one of the state’s largest lobster tanks, the size of an Olympic swimming pool, to hold as many as 125,000 pounds of lobster. In 2007, they started Catch a Piece of Maine, a direct-to-consumer business that’s turned heads in media outlets, including Inc., Forbes, and CBS Sunday Morning, which did a six-minute segment on Catch.
Recognition:
Small Business Administration (SBA) National Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2008); Nos. 3 and 4 on Inc. magazine’s 30 Under 30: America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs (2008).
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