Mainebiz Special Editions

V O L . X X V N O. X V I 26 Fact Book / Doing Business in Maine C E O I N T E RV I E W Since 2011, ADN Internet & Telephone has helped medium and large businesses from Maine to Florida save on their Internet and telecommunications. For companies with a monthly telephone bill of $450 and more, on average, we have helped them save up to 80% on their telephone and Internet costs. Spend less on telecom and get more… adninternettelephone.com | 800.599.0661 | Support@ADNME.com really? To learn how we can lower your costs, add more features, and improve communications contact us today! increase our seafood production capacity to meet our domestic and international demand. is will result in more and more jobs in the plant and throughout our supply chain. Our restaurant group's greater presence here is also leading to a second nucleus of restaurant opera- tions in Maine where we will continue to build a team. We're about to hire a catering coordinator and an events manager here, for instance. Long term, we envision continued growth and jobs to drive the engine which supports the whole company as we grow through- out the U.S. and into new international markets. If the city of Portland or state of Maine would help financially support it, we would also consider relocating our headquarters from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Maine … Just saying. MB: What effect do international trade disruptions have on your business and how are you dealing with it? LH: We haven't historically sold to China, so the worst parts of the trade war have not directly affected us yet. However, everyone that we do sell to outside the U.S., from Japan to the EU, is reconsidering the business they do with the U.S. e lobster industry as a whole is ultimately going to suffer long term effects of losing such a strong source of demand in the market- place, and nothing that's bad for the fishermen is good for us. Because we have little control over govern- ment trade policy, our answer is to do everything we can to grow and diversify demand for lobster domes- tically. at's led us to introducing new products to the Whole Foods freezer aisle and expanding our retail partners, as well as continu- ing to eye expansion for our shacks and diversify our own model, using Portland Pier as a test kitchen for new menu items. MB: After the summer focus on your newest location, what's next and what markets pose the great- est potential interest? BC: For our restaurant group, we are all consumed with making Portland Pier perfect now. But ultimately when we turn back to finding new locations, we feel great about the reception we got in San Francisco when we opened last year. We'd like to grow that market and also look at new cities along the West Coast, where there are a lot of seafood lovers but barely any lobster to be found. We also want to continue to expand internationally, be it existing and new markets in Asia or potentially Europe. We'll be doing plenty of R&D at home in our Portland shack for new menu items or facets of our restaurant business that will help us appeal to these new markets. LH: We also see our company's growth going far beyond increas- ing our number of shacks. We are expanding our branded retail program rapidly and supplying not just Whole Foods but respected regional grocers and online outlets. It's important to us that we con- tinue to find diverse ways to bring lobster to market, and every new shelf we find ourselves on helps us grow the Luke's brand and the brand of Maine lobster as a whole. Ultimately we also see this retail program expanding to include jonah crab and other catch from our fishermen partners. » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E Having a larger presence in Maine is huge for our brand. Our story began here with Luke's family and personal history as a lobsterman. — Ben Conniff P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY A lobster roll at Luke's Lobster on the Portland Pier

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