Dave Mergle is founder and director of marketing for Skuna Bay Salmon, a purveyor of farmed salmon from Vancouver Island in Canada. The company was founded in 2011 and Mergle has been responsible for the development and implementation of the brand.
SeafoodSource: Can you describe the Skuna Bay brand and the concept behind it?
Mergle: Skuna Bay Salmon is about many things: First, the perception of farmed salmon in general was that it was industrial in nature and not very good quality. That it was not environmentally friendly. We thought that what we did was the exact opposite of those things and we wanted to demonstrate that. When one visits our farms, they travel many miles eventually arriving at an area of unspoiled wilderness where professional farmers tend to their salmon and live with them seven days at a time, 24/7. So it is anything but industrial.
Customers wanted to know these people who were responsible for providing them with their salmon and they wanted to see this environment where it was raised. So we connected them with the farms and farmers in our messaging. But beyond that, we needed to ensure that the customer truly did see a difference in the quality and in the handling of their salmon. That we could consistently give them a “fresh from the ocean” experience. That’s where the tangible parts of Skuna Bay come in—the special selection, the unique processing and packing, the special packaging and delivery method. All of those things come together with the different methods utilized by our farmers at their isolated farms to ensure that we were always giving the customer an exceptional salmon experience.
Special recognition must be paid to our head farmer, Stewart Hawthorn, who had the vision and confidence in the beginning to say that we must try to do things differently and not accept “good enough.”
SeafoodSource: How has the brand grown and changed since its inception and how do you plan to keep it moving forward?
Mergle: When we started with our first distributor partner, Santa Monica Seafood (which was integral to the brand’s early success I might add, and one of the most progressive seafood organizations in the United States), we didn’t know how customers would respond. We sold about 10 cases in the first week.
But from there it gradually grew as chefs started to see the consistency behind what we promised. From there we increased its footprint to its now current 18 distributor partners and availability in most of the continental United States. But it has changed since then. We knew that it was so important to consistently deliver great quality fish, so we improved the packaging to improve refrigeration. After all, when we don’t allow our distributor partners to open the box and re-ice, the rest of the chain must be perfect. So that was a focus.
We also gradually expanded the offerings so there were more solutions for different customer types. Not everyone knows how or wants to fillet their fish, so we added a unique filleted option and some larger sized fish to advantage the needs of more of the customer base. Further development of this will be necessary to provide more solutions to more of the market. And, of course, as we have grown we have had to grow the support system behind it.
SeafoodSource: What have been the biggest challenges for Skuna Bay since the company launched and what have you learned from these experiences?
Mergle: There are two main challenges we have had to overcome – one is technical and the other is cultural. First, one always must deal with the natural variability of farm supply. When you’re raising an animal in the natural environment, not everything goes to plan. You try to control things as much as possible but sometimes Mother Nature has other ideas. It has at times put a governor on our growth and it requires one to expect the unexpected and be able to adjust one’s plan quickly.
The bigger challenge is in confronting conventional wisdom, people saying “you can’t do that” for whatever reason. This requires an uncompromising vision on what you’re trying to achieve and to do everything you can to get the rest of the chain aligned and pushing in the same direction, even if it seems at odds with short-term progress. There are so many reasons you can’t do something, but it requires a real confidence and strength to resist the resistance in the pursuit of building something different. One always has to be alert and prepared for conventional wisdom creeping back into decision-making.
SeafoodSource: Looking at the broader salmon industry as a whole, what are the top one or two issues facing the industry that directly impact your business and what are some of the solutions you would offer to address those issues?
Mergle: I see two main issues. One is that the overall salmon business is fragmented and often at odds with itself. This challenges the salmon industry’s ability to tackle issues collectively and instead it allows outside forces to divide and conquer. This is the case in its constantly variable supply and the market’s absorption of supply and in issues such as growing consumption. I don’t have an answer to this—history shows that collective bodies are generally ineffective in impacting their intended objectives. But these inefficiencies certainly create market opportunities at times.
The second thing is in allowing environmental NGOs to define sustainability and to dictate the conversation. Salmon farming is one of the most environmental methods of food production there is. Yes, there are poor operators and, yes, there have been many poor examples. But the business has improved enormously in the past few years and my assessment is that it is probably the single biggest food solution to the world’s short- and medium-term growth one could hope for.
It has a low carbon footprint, it is efficient and it provides for enormous production and growth with minimal environmental impact. We should be pushing back against some of the environmental NGOs that propose solutions that would take things backwards, such as using large output in electrical power to construct and operate on-land tank farms. Many of these ideas would be much more harmful to the world’s environmental situation than ocean-based salmon farming, especially considering the continual improvement one sees in ocean farming and its reversible impacts. Instead of constantly defending ourselves we should change the conversation and focus on promotion.
SeafoodSource: If there were just one thing you could change about the seafood industry, what would it be?
Mergle: Most of the seafood business is focused almost exclusively on cost reduction at the exclusion of value generation. As a former boss and owner once told me, “Managing costs is important, but if you’re not growing your business, in what way are you really contributing?” It is so important to think about growing business by developing new ideas and value instead of a constant focus on cost reduction. After all, cutting costs can only eventually arrive at zero, while there is unlimited opportunity for growth and in revenue generation.
SeafoodSource: Given the opportunity to address a room filled with seafood industry leaders, what is the one nugget of wisdom you would offer them as your closing remark?
Mergle: If one wants impressive results, have a vision, pursue it with passion and resist conventional wisdom.
