The company, which sells salmon from the Port of Los Angeles, says the internet is helping to change things among both their own and consumer habits.
Erik Rosini, the business’s owner and CEO, told Salmon Business that ‘a lot’ has changed since they launched as Standard Fish in 1999.
But, he revealed, that selling to the public was new to them, only starting that arm of the business two months ago.
And in terms of salmon, they were only selling that locally through the state of California and through online sales.
Mr Rosini told Salmon Business: “Our online business is the sole driver of the salmon that we would sell. We don’t necessarily import any salmon. Some guys have to buy directly from the farms. We purchase it locally and sold within the state of California through our online business. Salmon-wise, we sell about 5,000 pounds per week. You got guys that are using 30, 40, 50-thousand pounds per week.
“You have to re-invent the wheel every day. You can’t sit back and think your business model from 1999 is going to thrive when we’re in 2019. It’s not going to happen. The online avenue has been tapped into. The internet is large, there are a lot of people on that who don’t want to go shop for it. They would love to go online and have fresh seafood end up at their door in 24 hours. People don’t want to leave their house. If they can do everything from a computer, they can do it.”
Mr Rosini told Salmon Business that the wholesaler was trying to get the word out via social media channels, and acknowledged that the changes were ‘advertisement-driven’.
He said: “It’s an advertisement-driven business that is new to me. We have a customers on the wholesale side of things, we speak to them daily, quote them our list of fish and they buy. To get the word out to the general public takes a lot of social media, internet work or any means of advertisement.”
“Production as a whole is down, depending on the species. Everything needs to be a criteria that’s getting tighter and tighter as the years go on. If you get a swordfish that the tail is not on, they don’t want to receive it that way. Everything needs to be perfect.”
The change since the late 20th century in consumer habits has been huge. But Mr Rosini says you have to accept that and adapt your business models accordingly.
He said: “You got to evolve with the way things are heading. It’s going to be hard to say what the go-to business is going to be in the next few years but at the end of the day, you’ve got to evolve wherever you may go.”
“Whatever you may lose, you’ve got to find a way to get that back in any way, shape or form that you can. Everything is going to computers. We can all see that. Restaurants and that aren’t going to be able to, as they want more hands-on deals.”
