Launch
Childhood friends, Greg Linton and Andy Drewer, started Shore Seafood in 1981 in the small town of Saxis, Virginia. Located on the edge of the Chesapeake Bay, they knew they had a large opportunity with direct and easy access to fresh soft shell crabs. The two began building a customer base, making contact with potential customers on routes into Ocean City, MD and the Philadelphia, PA seafood market. Following a positive reception after a showing of fresh soft shell crabs (which were in extremely high demand at the time) the business immediately found themselves with multiple wholesale customers in Philadelphia and restaurants in Ocean City. It quickly became apparent there would be a need for an operating plant and packing crew. In the early 80's, while Andy was trying to secure a facility for the business, Greg was working out of the spare bedroom of his home storing product in chest coolers and freezers. He started leaving his house in the early morning hours making runs into the Philadelphia market as well as making deliveries to the company's Ocean City customers. Greg's wife handled the bookkeeping and also helped deliver orders, after purchasing their first refrigerated truck.
Growth
In 1985, as time progressed and the business grew, Shore Seafood was offered a seafood facility to rent in Saxis, VA. The company would utilize it's new space to process soft shell crabs during the summer months and shuck clams during the winter. With added space for production, that offered more opportunity and a growing demand and customer base, the company outgrew the small, leased plant. Andy's father, H.V. Drewer, had a large estate become available, and Shore Seafood purchased the property and buildings in 1990. This facility was twenty times larger than its predecessor. With much more space for production, the business could comfortably advance sales and actively market products.
The company participated for the first time in the annual Seafood Expo North America trade show - the largest seafood event in the world - hosted in Boston, MA. This is when the business began promoting their soft shell crabs under the Chesapeake Bay Delights line which has since become a trusted name associated with soft shell crabs today. Greg and Andy believe the company's continued participation in these trade shows is what propelled the company into what it is today. Not only did these shows offer large exposure, but they also promoted strong customer relationships throughout the years, that still exist today, and were also instrumental to the company's growth and long-term endurance. The company continues to still participate in this show today.
Maturity
A few years later, Greg and Andy met a businessman who owned a marketing company in Japan. The timing was impeccable. This was when the company really took off as the soft shell crab had just been introduced in Japan. Demand for a new product was at an all-time high with a new kind of volume Shore Seafood had never seen before. For the next decade, the business sold container loads of frozen soft shell crabs to Japan and could hardly keep up with the increasing demand.
In the early 2000's, however, things overseas began to change. This is when southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam began to realize they had their own soft shell crab: a mud crab. With this new discovery, the exportation of soft shell crabs slowed, as the mud crab was more readily available for only a fraction of the price of a domestic soft shell crab. With this massive market shift, the company quickly diversified.
Expansion
To supplement for the continuous decrease of soft shell crab supply, the company began to explore other types of opportunities in the industry. Shore Seafood began growing and harvesting oysters in the late 2000's and marketing them under its Grand Pearl brand. During this time, the company also began adding more clam products under the Chilantic label, such as chopped clams, clam strips, and a clam concentrate, in addition to the half shell clams already being produced. With these new product lines, Shore Seafood has now grown to a staff of more than fifty employees when operating at maximum capacity during busy summer months. Today, the company continues to grow in the seafood industry and is still led by their original owners more than forty years later.