By Barbara Brewer La Mere
Four years ago, life and business partners
Peter Kenyon and Dora Swan were despairing
of the local lack of fresh, sustainable harvested seafood.
Encouraged by a conversation with their
son-in-law, who had previously worked for
the Cousins seafood stores in the Albany
area, they set out to research both the acquisition
of sustainably harvested seafood
and the business of establishing their own
business.
The result is the opening late last year
of fin-your fishmonger at 3057 Route 50 in
Wilton. But it wasn’t a direct road.
Both had some business background, Kenyon’s in managing an HVAC business, Swan’s in managing a massage therapy practice. Swan also has full-time employment with the state Department of Health.)
They established contacts at the Boston Seafood Market, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch and the National Wildlife Federation. They made arrangements to have the seafood that they sold be no more than two days out of the water.
Swan and Kenyon’s criteria for their purchasing seafood include a requirement that the fish come from the top of the catch, the creatures most recently caught; none of the product that may have spent a few days on a boat.
They began selling seafood out of the back of their truck at the Delmar Farmers’ Market in the Bethlehem Middle School parking lot. The second weekend that they were selling in Bethlehem, customers were lined up for 20-minute waits, they said. As the season progressed, Swan and Kenyon were pulling in $4,000 worth of business every Saturday, they reported.
Farmers’ market season drew to a close and customers wanted to know how they were going to get fresh fish over the winter. Jon Phillips at Phillips Hardware in Delmar offered space in his parking lot, and winter sales were on.
To eliminate customer waits, a list of the most recent catch was posted online for a mailing list of 700 customers on Thursday and customers placed their orders in advance. This often meant that Swan and Kenyon were up until midnight on Friday nights portioning out and packaging up customer orders, but repeat customers arrived knowing exactly what they were buying and how much they were going to pay, they said.
Rather than setting fixed prices for their seafood, Kenyon and Swan vary the prices in accordance with market prices so customers can get lower prices, they said.
After a winter of selling seafood from bins in the back of a truck, it was time to find a storefront. Relationships had been established with the customer community in Delmar. Swan said she was looking for, a sense of community in a place where “customers knew who we were.”
Meanwhile, Swan and Kenyon had sought the advice of John Skrobella of the Small Business Development Center at SUNY Albany. He helped them to develop a business plan and funding was available.
It was on Western Avenue in Guilderland where fin-your fishmonger first opened. Swan and Kenyon had considered, at some point, possibly expanding their venture into Saratoga. They received a phone call from an acquaintance who worked at Meatland on Route 50 in the Wilton Plaza. The person who had been running the fish shop and had given it up.
They hesitated, they said, but ran the option past Skrobella, who encouraged them to proceed. Fin-your fishmonger opened in its second location on Dec. 21.
Along the way, they met Katie Hoskins, a chef who bought fish as the wholesale food purveyor for the Hilton Hotel at Albany Airport, and hired her. She now creates sweet potato salmon burgers, smoked fish, various flavors of hummus for both fin locations. There are fish fryers at both places.
Recipes for do-it yourself cooks are featured on its website, finshops.com.
They have established a relationship with Meatland whereby each store offers discount coupons for the other business.
Hours of operation in Wilton are currently Tuesday-Friday, 2-7 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fin is closed on Sunday and Monday until Memorial Day. The phone number is 581-2500.