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Merrick Seafood signs major wholesale contract

4 min read

Cape Coral seafood market, restaurant and distributor Merrick Seafood recently signed a multi-business, multi-coast distribution deal that will take the company’s wholesale offerings all across the state of Florida. Shortly after their TV debut on CNBC’s Billion Dollar Buyer earlier this week, the staff has seen an increase in customers coming in to meet the local celebrities.

“We were overall very happy watching the episode – there were a couple of moments that made us nervous, but it was a very happy ending. We worked very hard and got the deal,” said Patrick Krieg, co-owner of the family business, along with his wife, Kerry, and her sisters, Debra Santorico and Amy Keen and her husband David. The family and staff had a big watch party the night it aired; the episode focused on the wholesale part of the Merrick Seafood business, with businessman and host of the show Tilman Fertitta testing the family to really see what it had to offer. He encouraged the staff to expand its delivery horizons to Florida’s east coast, truly testing their skills by delivering to several of his own restaurants out there.

The family stuck through it, made all of the deliveries on time, kept up the high quality desired, and sealed the deal with a 10-restaurant contract at the end. And not only did they get their requested proposal, but Fertitta doubled it!

“We were ecstatic,” Patrick said. “Tuesday was our first delivery day to all 10 of the restaurants, seven on the east coast and three on the west.”

On top of all that, the local seafood company has been receiving additional calls from other restaurants throughout the state who now want Merrick Seafood’s delivery services after seeing the show.

“Before the show, we had four delivery trucks. We’ve since added two more – one during the taping, and another after, and also increased our staff by four to keep up,” Kerry said.

This latest wholesale increase has now also increased the company’s savings, which Patrick assures will be passed on to the customers.

“As our wholesale buying power increases, and as the restaurants request additional seafood, we can actually pass along even greater savings and larger selections to our market customers,” he said.

Even though the show only aired a few days ago, foot traffic has also increased in both the downtown Cape Coral seafood market and its next-door Fish-Tale Grill restaurant, 1229 S.E. 47th Terrace.

“I’ve definitely seen a lot of new faces since the day after the show aired,” said Amy, who runs the restaurant side of the business. “It’s certainly bringing people in.”

“We really hope the episode continues to help endorse the South Cape area – we have such great downtown business out here, with all of the fantastic restaurants and shops,” Patrick said.

“The show’s definitely brought great exposure to Cape Coral,” Kerry added.

Patrick, Kerry and Amy are all so proud and thankful for their family business and staff, who are considered part of the family. One can tell they’re not only doing their jobs, but having fun in the process. In fact, as he’s sort of established his own catch-phrase since the show’s airing, Amy’s husband, David, who runs the wholesale side of the business with Patrick, now says, “It’s about to get rowdy in here,” which then brings the staff to an uproar.

“We really are all like family in this business. We all work together, have fun, and provide the freshest, highest quality products available,” Kerry said.

“We are so appreciative of our loyal customer base -without them we couldn’t have grown to this point to be recognized by a great group like Fertitta’s,” Patrick said. “We are also so appreciative of our incredible staff and family, to be able to be have had this opportunity.”

The Merrick Seafood family recently celebrated 25 years in business in Cape Coral, and offers daily sales and specials on a wealth of fresh seafood offerings.

For those who missed the show, an encore episode Billion Dollar Buyer, Episode 208, will air during a marathon Sunday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m., on CNBC.

For more information on the business, call 239-542-8080, visit MerrickSeafood.com, or find the local seafood market on Facebook.