Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I N O. X X I I I O C T O B E R 3 , 2 0 1 6 20 S ince founding his York-based shellfi sh company Maine Coast in 2011, Tom Adams has achieved an enviable record of yearly double-digit growth. Top-line sales hit $15 million in 2012, $25 million in 2013, just under $40 million in 2014 and $43 million in 2015. He's expect- ing to close out this year with sales of more than $50 million. Between 30% and 35% of those sales are in Asian markets, with another 15% to 20% being in Europe and roughly half in domestic sales. In just fi ve years, Adams' company has become a major player in Maine's lobster industry, which accounted for $331 million in total export sales in 2015 and 12.2% of the top 25 Maine export commodities. Obviously, he's fl own past the "valley of death" many startups face in their earliest years. Adams says he's now paying closer attention to other details of running a success- ful business, such as making sure his employees and the community are able to share in that success. He sees the company as being in the phase of consolidating its growth and establishing a sustainable structure that's capable of managing increas- ing levels of revenue, maintaining strong customer relationships in a global marketplace and managing an expanding workforce. " e important step we took last year is that we wanted to slow growth a little bit," he says. "We were con- scious of the risks of growing too fast. We wanted to continue the growth of the company in a fashion that would be sustainable over the long term." P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F M A I N E C O A S T Ambassador for Maine's lobster industry Tom Adams builds a $50 million company with customers around the world B y J a m e s M c C a r t h y We're a tiny company, but we're doing our best to shed a good light on Maine and lobsters in general. Tom Adams Founder, owner and CEO Maine Coast, York PRESEN T ING SP ONSOR FOLLOW US @MBEVENTS #MBFast16 NOMINATIONS CLOSE: October 7 Go to mainebiz.biz/Fast16 For more information contact Rebekah Roy at rroy@mainebiz.biz. * No financial information will be printed and all will be kept confidential. Actual revenue amounts will not be published. If yes, Mainebiz wants to hear from you. We are NOW accepting this year's nominations for the top 3 Fastest Growing Companies in Maine! All applicants will be considered in the categories of small, medium, or large businesses and must have revenue* of at least $350,000 in each year. Has your company seen tremendous growth over the past three years?

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