The South Coast Insider – September 2020

Page 16

BUSINESS BUZZ

by Michael J. DeCicco

The South Coast’s two biggest cities boast the region’s two most successful seafood producers. New Bedford Kyler’s Catch Seafood Market and Kitchen and Fall River’s Blount Fine Seafoods are flagships of their region’s markets, both unique in their own ways. Kyler’s Catch Seafood Kyler’s Catch Seafood Market and Kitchen is located on Washburn Street in New Bedford. Kyler’s began as a South Coast flagship of the region’s fisheries market in 1946, when the business settled in the Whaling City. Jeff Nanfelt is part of the third generation that has owned and managed the company since its start in the early 20th century. His wife, Diane, said Kyler’s now has three different divisions: the wholesale and processing division servicing seafood distributors nationwide, the restaurant wholesale division servicing multiple local restaurants in Southern New England, and its retail store and kitchen. “We pride ourselves in the quality that we are able to serve and sell to our customers because our seafood is processed right here in-house,” she said. “That is why

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we consider each of our divisions uniquely ‘sea-to-table.’ Much of our seafood is purchased daily from local auctions and some of our products are offloaded at our own dock. Because our seafood is processed on-site in our state-of-the-art facility we are able to supply our retail store and kitchen with the freshest options available anywhere.” The wholesale division operates out of a 30,000-square-foot state-of-the-art processing plant, she said. The retail/kitchen division has expanded from one showcase and one lobster tank in a 1,000 square foot space in 1997, to a 5,000-squarefoot store with multiple showcases, tanks, and a steam room. Their sushi bar and kitchen – with an outdoor-dining waterfront patio – opened three years ago. The Nanfelts started the company in Newark, New Jersey, Diane proudly noted, under the name “Coastal Fisheries.” Founder Alfred Nanfelt worked out of his garage and purchased seafood products from the New York Fulton Fish Market. The elder Nanfelt made his distributions from a small van, from house to house in the Northern New Jersey area. By the late 1930s, the company moved to Philadelphia, and by the early 1940s, it became the leading supplier of seafood to most supermarkets in the Philadelphia area. Soon they supplied supermarkets from New York to Baltimore and found they were ever-expanding. After the company settled in the

(left to right) Zack, Troy, and Tatum along with their parents Diane and Jeff Nanfelt.

September 2020 | The South Coast Insider


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