Island Creek Oysters: Local coop extends its reach
by Jennifer BruniDuxbury native Skip Bennett founded Island Creek Oysters 15 years ago after becoming fascinated with aquaculture. His company functions as a true farmers’ cooperative, with growers leasing plots from the town of Duxbury and farming year-round in Duxbury Bay.
In just a few short years, Island Creek has helped establish a viable new local industry, one that might be the salvation of area fishermen looking for a way to survive – and thrive – in the struggling seafood industry.
The coop sells directly to Island Creek’s wholesale business, which acts as the coop’s sales distribution arm. Bennett’s company’s provides incentives for growers to produce as many high-quality oysters as possible within its year-round growing season.
His team’s drive and determination continues to take the company to new heights, with sales doubling over the past two years. In 2006, Island Creek hit $2.5 million in sales, with five million oysters sold to restaurants, distributors and wholesalers all over the country.
Shore Gregory, Island Creek’s director of business development, attributes the growth to the company’s ability to deliver – sometimes across thousands of miles – a high-quality product while maintaining strong customer relationships.
Island Creek’s coop business model encourages all of its company’s growers and vendors to contribute to the brand’s marketing efforts, making cold calls in person and selling to high-end restaurants while they are away on both business and vacation.
The mission is to get Island Creek oysters on the menu, one chef at a time. “We have our oysters in some of the best restaurants in the entire country, which makes selling to additional customers easier and that contributes to the legitimacy of the brand,” Gregory said. The company has turned its eye to upscale establishments in Atlanta, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Miami, where Island Creek aims to meet the growing demand for fresh oysters. Japan is also on the long-term radar.
Formal marketing of the Island Creek brand combines word of mouth, old-fashioned door-to-door selling and sponsored events – where the company donates oysters. Its recipients include Save the Harvest/Save the Bay, the Ellie Fund for breast cancer, Duxbury’s Oyster Festival, which raises money for Crossroads for Kids as well as a marine sciences/aquaculture scholarship fund. It also supplies oysters to WEEI’s raw bars outside Gillette Stadium during New England Patriots’ games.
Gaining traction with executive chefs took time. Bennett got his first orders by going door to door in Boston and New York City.
Today, a restaurant such as Per Se in New York City – which can easily cost $1,000 for dinner for two – will feature “Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca and Island Creek Oysters and Russian Servuga Caviar” on its menu.
“Our sales are product driven, not sales driven,” Gregory explained. “We don’t ride the market like other types of seafood.”
By that, Gregory explained that many competing oyster farms will try to sell off their product as quickly as possible. “We don’t do this because we harvest 52 weeks a year, while other farmers only harvest during one or two seasons.”
Harvesting year-round also strengthens the company brand, he emphasized.
Meanwhile, Island Creek growers share their best practices, which have enabled the company to cultivate top-quality oysters in just 18 months – compared to the industry average of two years. And with a fixed number of products for harvest, it can afford to be selective when it comes to its vendors.
That selectivity, in turn, creates a mutually strong customer-supplier relationship, where both parties are highly responsive to each others’ needs.
Challenges ahead
While Island Creek has enjoyed significant growth over the past five years, there are challenges that often are beyond the company’s control. Weather, especially heavy rain and ice, can shut down production. Red tide algae blooms are another more serious threat that requires outside help. That includes federal aid if the algae force the company to close for an extended period.
Like all farmers, the coop follows the weather carefully, stocking up before a storm by harvesting more oysters to meet demand based on past and current inventory reports. It also helps that oysters are surprisingly hardy compared to other types of seafood: the shellfish have a two- to three-week shelf life, if stored below 40 degrees.
The company’s growth also is limited by the size of Duxbury Bay. “Obviously one of the most difficult challenges that any business faces is how comfortable you are with the level of growth – if it’s going to put a strain on the quality of the product or your ability to produce and distribute the product,” Gregory said.
“If I work at a car garage and I put on tires all day and I run out, I can just call and order more tires. But oysters don’t work that way. We have a fixed number of acreage that oysters can be grown on, but as the growers refine their growing techniques, they become more productive with the plots that they have,” he noted.
The company works in tandem with its growers to make projections at the start of each 18-month growing cycle. Most of the time, it can turn to its growers to make up for production if certain plots don’t cultivate as expected.
Another challenge faced by Island Creek comes from its continued expansion.
Securing a quality distribution network for its highly prized and perishable product – one that can make consumers ill if shippers don’t follow regulations – is a top priority. “The farther and farther you ship the oysters away from home, the more you need to be very comfortable with the distributors, because you lose control over how the product is handled,” Gregory said.
To maintain control, the company checks the credit history of all its distributors. It also relies on personal references from customers and other suppliers to select its vendors.
While there is a push within the Mid-Atlantic states to secure more aquaculture oyster-farm grants from the federal government, Island Creek isn’t worried about the competition. “There’s no evidence to suggest the oyster market is saturated,” Gregory said. “And since we view ourselves as a market leader, more competition could very easily mean more growth for us.”
He predicts that oysters could have the same cachet as wines do. “The more people eat and consume oysters, the better off we are,” he said. Savvy oyster growers could develop their own system of terroir, along the lines of great wine lineages – to help them classify differences between, say, Wellfleet oysters and those from Duxbury Bay.
One answer to saving the fishing industry?
“Aquaculture and sustainable fisheries might be the answer to generating business for the seafood industry while we maintain healthy fish and fishing practices,” said Gregory. “It’s a controversial idea right now, but we’re participating in a farming culture side of the business, which is really exciting.”
Because Island Creek is a sustainable fishery, it generates what it sells and doesn’t deplete increasingly scarce fish stocks. “It’s also good for [Duxbury] Bay,” Gregory noted, “because the oysters are pumping and filtering millions of gallons of water a day, making the water cleaner.”
Published in Plymouth County Business August/September 2007
