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Official Press Release November 10, 2010 Vinalhaven Wharf Purchase |
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| Above: Former Inland Wharf, Vinalhaven, now Americanus LLC (Linda Bean) photo by Don Chisholm Below: Harborside Wharf, LLC (Linda Bean) showing large bait facility built 2009. Ben Magro photo |
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| VINALHAVEN, MAINE November 10, 2010 Linda Bean of St. George, Maine, has purchased the lobster wharf of Inland Seafood Company on Vinalhaven Island, where over 1 million pounds are bought and sold annually. In a joint statement, Bean and Bill Demmond of Inland Seafood, whose corporate headquarters and national sales office is in Atlanta, Georgia, confirmed today the transfer occurred Friday. Meetings with the staff have been taking place successfully at Carver's Harbor and a transition team is in place. Bean, who owns another nearby Vinalhaven lobster buying wharf called Harborside, has named the former Inland wharf Americanus. Demmond, who serves as Inland's Chief Operating Officer, traveling from Maine several times a year from Atlanta, says his company's lobster buying power still exceeds Bean's. Under the deal made between the two companies, Inland retains its two lobster buying stations and pound in Milbridge, its pound in Boothbay, and its processor investments in Portland. Bean approached Inland to sell this particular wharf to increase her Vinalhaven supply line. With this, she owns 5 buying sites, all close at hand in Knox County, where she started with 400,000 pounds in Port Clyde in 2007. In 2008 she bought Jonathan Shafmaster's Little Bay Lobster at Vinalhaven, and in 2009 she purchased Bert Witham's lobster wharf in Tenants Harbor as well as the busy floating buying station of Peter Jones at Vinalhaven. Additionally, like Inland, Bean processes new shell lobsters, though closer at hand to save on lobster mortality from road travel time. Bean's is a new start-up in Rockland's Industrial Park employing over 50 workers. In this deal, Inland has signed a non-compete agreement on buying shore lobsters directly or indirectly from Knox County. In exchange Bean is making a guaranteed percentage of the prized Vinalhaven shore lobsters available for Inland to purchase at a set margin over her cost. "Inland remains very committed to Maine and expects to further solidify the relationship we have developed with Linda and her mainland operations since her entry into the industry. We met first at the 2008 European seafood show in Belgium, with booths right next to each other," Demmond said. "We hit it off right away. We talk business." Bean, whose business is a vertically integrated model from trap to table to eliminate middlemen, shares her savings with her fishermen by means of bonuses and by making fuel and bait available to them at her cost. Last year she built a sizable bait provisioning facility on Vinalhaven to address head-on the worries by fishermen about increasing bait scarcity. An unusual thing about Bean is that early on she declared emphatically a 100% commitment to processing her lobsters only in Maine, meaning no foreign processing in Canada like other dealers. She has kept that commitment. She chose the name Americanus for her newest wharf, not only underscoring her alliance with Maine lobstering families but also pointing out that the Latin name for lobsters in the Gulf of Maine is homarus americanus. Demmond said Inland plans to grow its operations in Maine, and while it has some long standing Canadian relationships that it will always respect and honor, he hopes to do increasing buying and processing of lobster in Maine. Inland puts out a large line of seafood specialties and serves as a model of added value for the industry. Bean plans a second processing plant in Rockland at the site of a recent fire as soon as construction is practical. Demand is up for innovative lobster products, she says, now that lobster is more affordable, and she plans to keep it both affordable and accessible by introducing this month the first of a new line of food service and added value retail products. Joel Knox, Inland's founder and CEO, met Bean only once, three years ago during a short airport break and Bean toured the Inland real estate on Vinalhaven with Demmond around that time. The transfer of ownership talks started up with a phone call this summer from Bean to Demmond, and the transfer timing this fall worked well for both companies. "Vinalhaven is an island of great beauty," said Knox, "and I have always considered it wonderful to be an owner of property there. We've been spoiled by the absolutely great lobsters that come from there, and we hope to be buying some on a continuing basis -- now from Linda." Demmond added, "Linda has another wharf close by us where she's been buying lobsters from Vinhaven fishermen for three years now, and she's built a impressive bait cooler and freezer building there. We feel very comfortable for our fishermen to carry on with good care on bait and fuel, which are real important aspects to running a buying operation that is smooth and efficient for both the boats and the buying personnel." Bean said her plan is to run each buying dock separately for the remainder of this year. Manager Frank Laurie and his dock and office staff will continue at the Americanus facility, and Manager Peter Jones and his crew at the Harborside facility. Bean and her CEO John Petersdorf have set up a 6-person transition team to listen to all ideas from their fishermen, dock crew, managers, and accountants. That team is comprised of two from each facility plus two from their mainland headquarters in Rockland. The fishermen and staff have been notified at both wharves and invited to participate. So far this week, this has received a positive reaction at both wharves. Demmond points to Bean's substantial rebuilding of her Harborside wharf structure, plus the new bait building, as proof she and Petersdorf, who has 18 years in the business in Knox County, will take good care of Vinalhaven's fishermen and dock crews and the wharf infrastructure within which they all work together. "Marine dock builder Art Tibbetts is on site for us all at Harboside right now," said Bean, "doing a $300,000 renovation to the wharf and the outlying floating buying station we operate near the entrance to Carver's Harbor. Ideally none of our boats will have to wait long for any reason, and we purpose to have a ready supply of bait for all our fishermen, backed up by increased bulk purchase commitments I am making now for 2011. Bait and bonuses are keys to success in this industry, and we thank all our boats for their lobsters and for their confidence in our operations here in our home territory: Knox County." |
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