Seafood Distributor
While growing up in California, little did Bob Fram and Dave Marabella know that their childhood friendship would grow into a business partnership for one of the premier wholesale fish and seafood distributors in Hawaii.
No fish tale, the growth of Garden & Valley Isle Seafood, Inc. is a success story built on American ingenuity and buoyed by the business expertise of the George S. May International Company.
Friends First, Business Partners Later
Bob and Dave were boyhood friends whose families had a lot in common. Their mothers had been friends since junior high school and their fathers were both gunners on B-17 bombers during WWII. Bob's family relocated to Hawaii in 1969, however. With an ocean between them, the boys lost touch.
Thanks to Dave's mom, who remained in contact with Bob's family, the two were reunited in 1981. Although Dave was considered one of California's top high school and collegiate pitchers, his professional baseball career was sidelined by an elbow injury. At his mother's suggestion, after college Dave joined Bob on the U.S.S. Independence and U.S.S. Constitution, cruise ships based out of Honolulu, where the two were employed as waiters and room stewards.
Starting Out
The positions required being on board for two months straight, followed by two months off. To fill the time during these two-month leaves, Bob cast a line into the business of wholesale seafood distribution in Hawaii.
With an entrepreneurial spirit and a cooler loaded with Hawaiian farm-raised Kauai Blue Prawns stashed in the trunk of his car, Bob began calling on local restaurants. The prawns were a real door opener, he says. Providing chefs a peek at the oversized, bright blue prawns atop a bed of ice was all the salesmanship necessary to sell out his supply of prawns in one month.
Now that Bob had a foot in the kitchen doors of local restaurants and established relationships with chefs, he began offering additional products, starting with Alaskan Salmon and New Zealand fish.
The business was growing and Bob - ever the salesman - talked Dave into abandoning his shipboard duties and staying in Honolulu to grow the business together. They incorporated the business in 1984, with Bob as president/secretary and Dave as vice president/treasurer.
Through the years the business expanded its customer base beyond Honolulu and the Big Island of Hawaii. Its original "curbside" service grew to worldwide shipping connections that allow deliveries of fresh seafood within 24 hours to customers on the West Coast. Garden & Valley Isle Seafood, Inc., also ships daily throughout the U.S. and elsewhere around the globe.
The company's source for seafood has grown, too. No longer working with just local suppliers, the distributor offers product from Japan, Tahiti, Fiji, Costa Rica, Chile, the Pacific Rim and as far north as Canada. In addition, the product line includes some specialty items like sauces, smoked seafood and dried flavorings to enhance the flavor of seafood and meat dishes.
Bob's "mobile office" and trunk full of iced fish and seafood has been replaced by Garden & Valley Isle Seafood's 10,000-square foot processing plant in Honolulu and a 7,000-square-foot facility on Maui. Both have state-of-the-art food preparation equipment. The company also has a fleet of refrigerated trucks and a team of 45 employees. Sales are in excess of $15 million.
Fish Out Of Water
With this growth came increased demands on Bob and Dave. Managing day-to-day operations took them away from what they liked best: developing new accounts and growing the business. Both are married and now have children. The increased workload also infringed on their respective family time.
To move Garden & Valley Isle Seafood to the next level without sacrificing their personal lives, Bob and Dave knew that they had to re-think their roles in the company's daily operations. As General Manager Jeff Gehlke aptly stated: "It wasn't a two-man show anymore. The company was growing from a compliant and controllable 'youngster' into an 'unruly teenager.' We had to figure out how to establish a strategic vision so Bob and Dave could focus on business development."
A Closer Look
Timing, as they say, is everything. When May International consultants contacted Garden & Valley Isle Seafood, the owners agreed to a survey of its business practices. The trained survey analysts reviewed operations and identified several key issues that needed to be addressed before Bob and Dave could take the company to the next level.
Working with the May International consultants, Garden & Valley Isle took a hard look at its sales planning and controls, profit and expense controls and management organization, then began implementing the operational changes.
For starters, the consultants provided the tools for better financial management and more accurate reporting so Bob and Dave could quickly and easily review the company's financial status. They also helped the company establish better capital management controls to pave the way for replacing aging equipment and future acquisitions. A sales incentive program helped drive home the message that everyone has a role in the continued success of the company.
Keeping in mind the concern Bob and Dave had about spending more time with their families, the consultants recommended hiring a general manager to oversee the company's daily operations. Together with Jeff and other key managers, Liz Parker, Human Resources; Richard Jenks, Controller; James Lee, Purchasing; and Cliff Yamauchi, Operations Manager, Bob and Dave launched a new era for Graden & Valley Isle Seafood.
Significant positive results and a definite upturn were noted by Garden & Valley Isle at the halfway point in the project with only 60 percent of the recommendations implemented. The changes to the business sustained the growing operations through even difficult economic times.
"We credit the unique perspective that the consultants brought to the process," explains Jeff. "The consulting team had experience working with large companies, and even better, team members had owned their own companies. They had experience taking a business from a vision to practical application. You don't see that in most other consultants."
"We're looking forward to continuing to work with George S. May International Company in the future to help us further refine the process," added Jeff. "As we continue to grow and increase our profitability, we want to remain a highly prized partner to our customer's restaurants."
