The story of Wolf Marine Systems, Inc., the first company to build and install large industrial refrigerated holding systems used in the seafood industry, is the old one of hard-working immigrants who, despite setbacks, reach eventual success.
In 1922, Rena Belzer, jobless in post-World War I Germany, applied to emigrate to the U.S. In 1925, she married William Wolf, formerly an engineer who worked at Mercedes-Benz before being drafted.
Rena Belzer’s papers came through first, so the 19-year-old bride left for New York shortly after her wedding, with a suitcase and $5. Five hours after arriving, she was cooking dinner for a Yiddish-speaking Jewish family. Three years later, she returned to Germany and successfully petitioned the military to release her husband.
In the U.S., the couple worked 18-hour days aiming to own their own business. After failing at their first attempt and losing everything they had saved, William and Rena began servicing the condensers used to chill liquids in breweries. Chilling liquids proved to be the key to refrigerated holding systems.
The Wolfs entered the seafood business by re-building refrigeration systems for icehouses, then located on wharves because fishing boats had to carry ice.
“When they started in the 1930s, my mother and father were doing industrial refrigeration in cold storage plants,” said their son, William “Bill” Wolf Jr., president of the Brooklyn-based company. “The mechanical part of the refrigeration system is called the condensing package. The part of the equipment that cools the water is called the chiller.”
Chilling seafood meant chilling seawater, but as Bill said, “Salt water eats up everything.” Most metals were corrosive, and those that weren’t, were toxic to shellfish. The Wolfs settled on steel, though it rusted and had to be replaced every couple of years. (They now use titanium.)
Gradually, the Wolfs developed and built their own chillers and began installing and servicing them. They incorporated their second business, Wolf Condenser Works, in 1936.
Bill said, “Our claim to fame is: we manufacture high efficiency titanium shell-and-tube chillers as opposed to shell-and-coil. The difference is in the efficiency.” On every titanium chiller they make, they offer a 20-year warranty.
Refrigerated holding systems didn’t catch on in New England until the 1960s because New England dealers could simply pump seawater over their lobster tanks and let it flow back out again. Most of the time the water stayed cool without refrigeration.
The Wolfs set up their first holding system in Maine over 30 years ago. Portland dealer Richard Douty, of Douty Brothers Lobster, has used Wolf chillers for 17 years. “We haven’t changed the chillers,” he said, adding, “They use only high-end stuff: all top-grade with their materials. And they’re very good when you call them up. If I need some filters or different items, they’ll have it to me immediately, so their service is excellent. And they’re nice people. It’s a family-run business.”
A second type system developed for use at inland locations uses artificial sea salt. “They don’t use sea water,” Bill said, “because of the contaminants [algae]. It’s all on a closed system. On a big system of over 10,000 gallons, using artificial sea salt eliminates potential problems.”
In 2006, Wolf Marine installed one such inland system in Manchester, just outside Augusta, for Lighthouse Wine and Seafood, which sells fresh lobster, fish and shellfish, gourmet cheeses, wines and craft beers.
Owner James Palmer and his wife, Bridget, did some research then checked out seafood shops within 60 to 70 miles. At one shop in Damariscotta, Palmer recalled, “His water was just super: crystal clean. That was the thing that caught my eye.”
After researching Wolf Marine, Palmer called Bill and told him what he and his wife had in mind. Bill figured out what they needed and priced it for them. Palmer said they picked it up and installed it themselves. “We put it in and fired it up, and it’s been a great system. It really is. I get a lot of compliments on how clean the tanks are. Looking in, the water is just crystal clear.”
“The most important part of a holding system is the refrigeration system,” Bill said, explaining, “It’s the simplest part, because it’s all automatic.” (Wolf holding systems have no valves because, Bill said, “If there’s a way to shut off the water flow and deadhead a pump, eventually it’ll happen.”) “Everything else requires human interaction: like filtration and the actual working of the tanks, themselves,” he explained, “but once you have a good refrigeration system in, it’s all automatic, and the water is kept at 38 to 40 degrees.”
As the Palmer story illustrates, the seafood business is small enough that, essentially, everyone involved either knows or knows of everyone else. Wolf Marine built its reputation on quality products and a strong sense of moral and ethical responsibility toward its customers. Thus, when Asians joined Italian and Portuguese fish dealers in the mid-1970s, word of mouth prompted a Chinese wholesaler and Wolf Marine customer in Toronto to recommend the company to relatives in Hong Kong who recommended Wolf Marine to other Asian businesses. The Wolfs started building large holding systems in Hong Kong, China and South Korea.
Upon first seeing his company’s tanks, Bill says Asian buyers stick their hands in the water to see if it’s cold. “If they can’t prove [to their customers] they can pack the lobsters out at between 38 and 40 degrees,” their customers will not buy from them. “If it’s packed out at, say, 38 degrees and it’s good, hard shell quality product,” he said, “they can expect 2 per cent mortality or less [on arrival in Asia]. If it’s packed out above 45 degrees, then it can run as high as 15 to 20 percent mortality on arrival, everything else being equal.”
When the price paid to fishermen for lobster dropped to $2 per lb. in October 2008, Wolf Marine received a lot of interest in big holding systems from foreign countries thinking of installing them in resorts for the tourist trade. The company set up three large holding systems in Dubai and one in Senegal, South Africa. As Bill tells his customers: “The usefulness of these holding systems is limited only by their imagination.”
For more information, call (718)443-1567 or e-mail wolf_marine@att.net.