Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I N O. X I M AY 1 8 , 2 0 2 0 24 S M A L L B U S I N E S S » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E Progressive • Creative • Forward Thinking • Resourceful Progressive • Creative • Forward Thinking • Resourceful Come See Why Brewer Means Business. Your Business. BREWERMAINE.GOV/BIZ Contact D'arcy Main-Boyington Economic Development Director dmain-boyington@brewermaine.gov | 207-989-7500 C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 6 » F O C U S FOOD RETAIL From food retail to 'etail' Ecommerce a winning recipe for Fork Food Lab, Atlantic Sea Farms S omething's cooking at Fork Food Lab these days, but not the pre- pandemic markets and events that had become regular happenings. Closed to the public since mid- March, the shared commercial kitchen and food-business incubator in Portland's West Bayside neighbor- hood has opened an online market that's keeping more than a dozen of its 26 members busy as the restaurant sector remains on hold. ey include Hannah Lake White, who runs and co-owns Lake & Co., with her husband, Charles, a chef. e seasonal catering company, normally quiet this time of year, is busier than ever selling ready-to-heat- and-eat frozen comfort food dishes like macaroni and cheese and chicken pot pie through Fork's online market for curbside pickup, as well as dishes through an ecommerce site of their own they built with Square. "It's going to be hard for this to compete with the money I can make from events, but I never opened in March or April before, so my num- bers look amazing," White says. Fork Food Lab, headed by Bill Seretta of a Yarmouth nonprofit that bought the business in 2018, set up the online market as its five-person staff reconfigured the building for the new setup, creating more room between work areas. It also gave Plucked Salsa more room after it doubled produc- tion, picking up Shaw's grocery stores as a new customer "during all this madness," Seretta says. Including Lake & Co., 16 Fork Food Lab members are participating in the online market from a hemp lollipop, tea and candy maker named Anoids to Local Babe Food, a newcomer peddling organic baby food and cloth bibs and sandwich sacks. Just before Mother's Day weekend, beer and wine were added to the online market. One month since the launch, Fork Food's online market has attracted 66 unique customers, 17 of whom have ordered between two and six times. at translates into $1,000 in weekly sales, which on an annualized basis is the same as what on-site markets brought in last year. Seretta says the goal is to increase the customer base, as well as to change the public's buying behavior to online. "If we can get to a base of 200 cus- tomers, we'll be in pretty good shape," he says. For its members, Fork Food also aims to create a buying club for bulk ingredi- ent orders as it launches professional development workshops. Seretta is also We've got a whole bunch of unknowns, but we're still getting new members. — Bill Seretta Fork Food Lab Lydia Coburn Lydia Coburn, community , community coordinator for coordinator for Fork Food Fork Food Lab Lab, has been doing a brisk , has been doing a brisk curbside business during curbside business during the pandemic. the pandemic. P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R

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