April 19, 2012 – Why would a lobster bait and fish company buy a facility an hour away from the ocean?
Oddly enough, location.
Family-owned New England Fish Co. has purchased a 39,000-square-foot building at 1833 Auburn Road in Turner. The facility is completely inland, despite the fact New England Fish Co. relies on the coast for its business.
Sibling co-owners Suzannah and Ryan Raber have been leasing the former Cooper Brothers Apple Processing Plant for nearly a year, using it for long-term, overflow storage of lobster bait, fishing nets and boat gear.
"It's actually quicker to get to our customer base from Turner than it is from Portland because of summertime Route 1 traffic," Ryan Raber said.
Unlike short-term storage, which requires frequent trips in and out, the long-term storage facility in Turner allows New England Fish Co. to use big trucks to pick up bait less often, bring that bait to Portland and then use smaller trucks to distribute it to customers along the coast.
Read the full article at the Sun Journal.