THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 19, 1995 TAG: 9506170254
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JASON HIDALGO, BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
It's a classic formula. Person immigrates to the United States. Person works hard. Person attains success.
It sounds simple enough, but in reality, the process is a lot more complicated than it seems.
Just ask William Mall.
``I had no money, my friend,'' Mall said, recounting the day 19 years ago when he arrived in the United States.
Mall now heads Ocean Foods Inc., a Chesapeake food processing company that reports $3 million a year in sales and a market that stretches to the West Coast as well as Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.
``The thing is, money can never make the money for you. Knowledge is the key,'' Mall said. ``College helps, but it will not give you the experience you need. You have to earn that yourself.''
Experience, it seems, often is arrived at the hard way, by solving problems. And Mall knows full well the problems of the seafood business, from rezoning property to the vagaries of the harvest.
Upon his arrival from Pakistan in 1976, Mall immediately started working for his brother who happened to be in the seafood business in Delaware. Two years later, he moved to Tidewater and worked for International Seafood Co. ``I learned a lot by working for both of them,'' Mall said.
After saving enough money and deciding that he knew enough about the industry, Mall went into business for himself in 1984 as a broker. He bought and sold seafood from his Virginia Beach apartment.
He also attended seafood conventions and established his contacts, including foreign connections.
``I wanted to get into the export business,'' Mall said. ``So I traveled to other places.''
In 1990, Mall set up a small retail store in Chesapeake, but he wasn't finished. By late 1994, the site contained a plant complete with an office and equipment for processing raw seafood. He also acquired a loan to expand the plant's storage space.
Ocean Foods buys most of its raw material from local watermen. It also imports seafood, such as milkfish from Asia, as part of its effort to diversify.
International trade now accounts for 5 percent of Mall's market, which mainly deals with the West Coast.
In a brightly lit room about 50 feet long and 25 feet wide, employees work in ``assembly line'' fashion, processing up to 4,000 pounds of food a day. ``This is where we process everything,'' said Clem Vergara, the plant manager.
Two workers wearing safety glasses empty a plastic tub of conch, a large spiral-shelled mollusk, into a wide-mouthed machine that spits out occasional shards.
``The machine crushes the shells that house the meat,'' said Vergara, raising his voice above the machine's whirring and cracking sound.
Workers haul tubs of cracked shells to a table where quick-fingered workers pluck out the meat, discard the shell and send the conch to another table for cleaning and packing in plastic bags. Then the meat is stored in a freezer and boxed for delivery.
``We actually process four types of seafood here,'' Vergara said. ``We process conch, soft shell crab, blue crab, and several kinds of fish.''
It's this diversity of seafood that has helped Mall survive the unpredictable industry. Harvests can rise and fall from year to year, battering food processors. Ocean Foods' employment dropped to about 40 from 80 last year.
``You can't just rely on one type of seafood,'' Mall said. ``Several crab houses in the area closed because of problems in the crab market. By being able to process conch and fish, our plant wasn't greatly affected by the crab market's downturn.''
But diversity doesn't come without problems. Entrepreneurs face other harsh realities.
Neighbors complained recently about the odor from Mall's plant. Mall said he made special arrangements with the city's disposal services, but there still are occasional complaints.
While dealing with the neighbors' complaints, Mall learned the old South Norfolk residential area's zoning code didn't allow for food processing. Now Mall is fighting to keep his food processing line where it is. He recently approached the City Planning Commission with a rezoning request.
If his request is turned down, Mall has no option but to move his food processing equipment out of his building.
Although many people think money is the key to establishing a business, Mall suggests the complications of starting and running an enterprise depend on more than cash.
Many businesses fail because people don't fully realize what they're getting into, he said.
Avoid this problem through preparation, Mall said. Set your mind on what you want to do and know as much about your business as you can.
``Every entrepreneur wants his business to expand,'' Mall said. ``You just need to understand the nature of the business, including its problems, and go from there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI
William Mall may be zoned out of his seafood processing plant in the
South Norfolk area of Chesapeake.
by CNB