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2008 SBA NATIONAL YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
Ready Seafood was formed by brothers, John and Brendan Ready while they were finishing their last year of college in 2004. Ready Seafood is a wholesale live lobster distributor operating on Hobson's Pier in Portland, Maine. Ready Seafood purchases lobster directly from fishermen on Hobson's Pier as well as contracting out with multiple wharfs along the Maine coast. Their newest venture, Catch a Piece of Maine, offers customers ownership rights to Maine lobster traps and all the lobsters yielded from the trap for the entire year.
Often, entrepreneurs start at an early age. John Ready was born in 1980. As the older brother, he was drawn to the lobster industry first, paving the way for his younger brother. As John reached high school, he was fishing 500 traps with a new fiberglass boat. By his senior year, he had built his lobster business to a point where industry regulations would not allow him to fish any additional traps. The entrepreneurial ‘bug’ steered John to college, and in 2004 he graduated from Northeastern with a business degree in marketing and entrepreneurship.
Brendan Ready was born in Portland in 1982. At age 8, he started working with his brother on his uncle’s lobster boat. As he grew older, he purchased his own lobster boat and fished 400 traps through high school. He learned to appreciate hard work and the freedom of working for himself. Upon graduation, he attended Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.
Four days before John’s graduation, he and Brendan signed a lease on Hobson’s Pier in Portland which has become the home for Ready Seafood. Over the past four years John and Brendan have taken their entrepreneurial spirit and developed a clear and visible success story on Portland’s working waterfront. Starting as two brothers with a love for the ocean, an idea, two pick up trucks and a vacant wharf, they have created a business portfolio illustrating sales growth of over 716%.
Not content with the success story known as Ready Seafood, the brothers launched a new venture; Catch a Piece of Maine, in October 2007. This is a membership club where members own the contents of a lobster trap fished by a real Maine lobsterman and receive all the lobsters caught from their trap for an entire year. Each shipment also includes clams, mussels, a Maine-made dessert, lobster bibs, cooking instructions, a DVD showing lobstermen fishing and a gift card.
Catch a Piece of Maine allows the customer to share in the same passion and excitement of the lobster industry that John and Brendan have been a part of all their lives. Customers can view their trap’s statistics online, seeing when their trap was hauled and how many lobsters it caught. At any time, customers may request their lobsters to be shipped anywhere in the country overnight for a gourmet lobster dinner or as a gift to friends, family, or business associates. | ||
