Something’s fishy

BUSINESS BUZZ we consider each of our divisions uniquely ‘sea-to-table.’ Much of our seafood is pur

Kyler’s Catch Seafood Market and Kitchen is located on Washburn Street in New Bedford. Kyler’s began as a South Coast flagship ofthe 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 chased daily from local auctions and some ofour 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 notby Michael J. DeCicco ed, under the name “Coastal Fisheries.” Founder Alfred Nanfelt worked out of his garage and purchased seafood products The South Coast’s two biggest cities boast from the New York Fulton Fish Market. the region’s two most successful seafood The elder Nanfelt made his distributions from a small van, from house to house producers. in the Northern New Jersey area. By New Bedford Kyler’s Catch Seafood Market the late 1930s, the company moved to Philadelphia, and by the early 1940s, it and Kitchen and Fall River’s Blount Fine became the leading supplier of seafood Seafoods are flagships of their region’s to most supermarkets in the Philadelphia area. Soon they supplied supermarkets markets, both unique in their own ways. from New York to Baltimore and found they were ever-expanding.

Kyler’s Catch Seafood

After the company settled in the right here in-house,” she said. “That is why (left to right) Zack, Troy, and Tatum along with their parents Diane and Jeff Nanfelt.

Whaling City, under the direction of Ron Nanfelt, it became the city’s largest seafood processor. At the same time, throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, New Bedford itself became the nation’s largest fishing industry port. The third generation of the Nanfelts joined the team in the 1980s, and a seafood company that started from modest means over a half century before emerged as Kyler Seafood in 1985.

Most recently, the fourth generation of Nanfelts has come on board. Jeff and Diane’s oldest son, Zack, manages the kitchen as Head Chef. Their middle child, Troy, is part of the restaurant wholesale division and oversees processing and distribution. Their daughter, Tatum, works alongside Zack as Assistant Kitchen Manager and Server. Jarrod, their nephew, helps manage the retail store. Kyler’s truly operates as one big family.

Currently, guests face a few social distancing challenges when they enter the market and kitchen, she acknowledged. “Our loyal customers, however, have been cooperative and patient with the restrictions. They appreciate our efforts to keep them safe and are willing to adhere to appropriate protocols.” The Nanfelts, along with their extended family – valued employees past and present – are grateful they are still able to continue offering a wide variety of fresh, local, and international seafood after all these years.

Blount Fine Seafoods

Patricia Gaudreau is the director for retail operations for Blount Clam Shacks and Markets, just one of the two divisions of a company that is 140 years old.

“We cook 500,000 clam cakes and sell 10,000 pounds of lobster meat each year,” she said. “We employ 90 people in this division alone year-round.”

Her division includes the “Clam Shack Waterfront” restaurant and the “Clam Shack and Market” in Warren (which are open in the warm weather seasons) and the “Blount Company Soup Store” near the corporate headquarters in Fall River, which is open year-round.

The “Company Soup Store” offers gourmet soups to take home, heat, and enjoy. The Warren restaurants offer the typical, old-style clam shack experience with clam cakes and chowder, whole belly clams, fish and chips, lobster rolls, and

Reservations for outdoor seating at Blount are recommended, but not required. Tables are marked after they have been properly sanitized.

other seafood dishes. The “Blount Clam Shack and Market” serves these clam shack favorites and sells other seafood, gourmet soups and unique specialty foods.

Blount’s corporate division has plants in Fall River, Warren, and Texas, where it produces refrigerated and frozen soups for area grocery stores and restaurants including “Panera Bread” and “Legal Seafoods”.

Todd Blount said his family started the business as an oyster farm in 1880. After the Civil War, Blount family members came to work the rich oyster beds of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. Then Eddie B. Blount started an oyster packing firm in West Barrington, Rhode Island. In the early 20th century, Byron Blount, Eddie’s son, carried on the business while his brother Willis Blount opened an ice packing plant nearby.

In 1946, the company reinvented itself as a clam processing business, leading to its plants’ current focus on producing chowder and other soups. In the 1950s and 1960s Blount Seafood proudly served as a major supplier to the nation’s largest food processor, the Campbell Soup Company.

The company started its restaurant service in 2005, around the time it stopped focusing on processing seafood in general and set its production to soups alone.

The company currently employs a total of 1500 people in its plants across three states. Todd Blount estimated the company produces 200 million pounds of soup, or 400 million servings, every year.

He pointed to the boast on the company website that says, “Our seafood background has established us as the largest producer of clam chowder in New England and the largest manufacturer of lobster bisque in the country. But this does not limit us from making awesome beef chili, chicken tortilla, and organic tomato soup.”

Gaudreau said Blount’s success has even survived the current pandemic shutdowns. When the Warren clam shack had to close its dining room and focus on takeout orders only, business for those kinds of orders went up, not down. “Sales went through the roof”, she said, “This period has been a challenge, but it’s also been busy for sure.”

In fact, she said, she even had to hire more staff for the waterfront Clam Shack, “for the front-of-the-line customers. The market is small. So we can only allow in four or five at a time; it’s normally a very busy place. We’re still busy.”

She praises her staff’s ability to make the customer experience exemplary even under pandemic conditions. “Everyone here has been doing great at what needs to be done,” she said. “Staff and customers are both doing an amazing job. We just have to do it right, and we are doing it right.”