Partnerships come in many shapes and sizes, and for the owners of Boston Wholesale Lobster Corp., Bill Palombo and David DiCenso, it was their own personal experience in the lobster business since the 1970’s and working together since 1997 that forges the basis for a successful business.
In 1907, Bill Palombo's Grandfather, Erasmus, a fisherman by trade, emigrated from Italy and settled in Nahant Massachusetts and started fishing for lobsters with traps from a rowboat in the immediate area off the local coast. His two sons fished with him as children and one-son, Raymond, Bill's uncle, continued fishing and building boats throughout his life.
Peter Devens, Bill’s former partner and joint founder of Boston Wholesale Lobster, Corp., fished with Bill’s uncle, Raymond. Bill meanwhile had joined Procter and Gamble as a salesman after attending Colby College in Waterville, Maine. It was at this time that large bodies of lobsters were discovered residing off of the Massachusetts' coast on the edge of the continental shelf, on George’s Bank.
Bill’s cousin, Raymond who was shipping out on containers ships at the time, made a fishing trip on one of these new offshore lobster boats and reported his findings to the family. Bill; his father, Albert; uncle, Raymond and cousin, Raymond decided to go into the offshore lobster business together and helped Raymond finish building a fifty foot lobster boat that was suitable for this new offshore lobster fishery. Raymond, Bill's cousin, and his dad set their first traps offshore in June of 1971, with Peter Devens on board as a crew member.
In the years that followed, Bill built more boats and went on his own and Peter Devens stayed on with Bill and skippered one of his boats the f/v Holly & Alexander until 1988. Then Bill and Peter decided it was time to try something different. They decided to form Boston Wholesale Lobster Corp. and located the business in a small building in East Boston, just minutes from Logan Airport. Because of their extensive experience in the lobster industry, they were successful immediately and specialized in shipping high quality lobsters thoughout the world.
Their business quickly grew with Peter running the day to day operations and Bill handling the business and financial matters as well as operating his own fishing boats, which were supplying some of the companies' lobsters. Boston Wholesale Lobster Corp.s' reputation grew as people recognized the company’s expertise in understanding the health and well-being of these ocean creatures as well as Bill's and Peter's straight forward and honest style of doing business. It was soon obvious that the company’s sales had outgrown its building's capacity to handle lobster efficiently and they were turning away as many orders as they were taking.
Honing their combined total of over 60 years experience in the industry, and after more than two years of searching, planning and negotiating for a new facility, Boston Wholesale Lobster Corp. signed a long term lease for their current location in Lynn Massachusetts. In June of 1996, construction was started on a new state-of-the-art distribution and shipping center and Boston Wholesale Lobster Corp. started operating out of their new facility on December 7th, 1996.
This facility, which, by all accounts, is still one of North America’s most effective environments to receive, hold and ship lobsters, is located at 78 Marine Blvd, Lynn, Massachusetts, just fifteen minutes away from Logan International Airport. The majority of BWLC's shipments travel by air.
Peter retired in 2009 and Bill asked David to be his partner and co-owner to continue the business. David had originally joined the company as sales manager shortly after BWLC moved into the new facility in Lynn in 1996 and has been working closely with Bill ever since.
David started in the lobster business as a young man, working summers at the Lobster Pound in Plymouth and then upon graduating Saint Anslem College went to work as a sales representative for Steve Connolly Seafood’s in Boston. After a year at Steve Connolly's, David went back to the Lobster Pound and ran the company for one year.
In 1993, David started his own lobster business David’s Wholesale Lobster, Company, in Revere, MA and established himself as a premier buyer and seller of lobsters all along the entire east coast of the United States and in Canada. Many of those suppliers are people that he still buys from today. When the new Boston Wholesale Lobster Corp. facility in Lynn became operational, Bill and Peter approached David with the idea of joining the company as the sales manager and eventually becoming an owner and working partner in the business.
Boston Wholesale Lobster Corp.’s sales have grown to over 20 million dollars per year and the facility can now comfortably hold over 85,000 pounds.
Bill and David are contemplating expanding the current facility with more tanks, more storage and an expanded shipping area to accommodate 140,000 pounds.
Bill still operates three offshore lobster boats: f/v Freedom; f/v Timothy Michael and f/v Endeavour out of Newport, RI, which supplies Boston Wholesale Lobster Corp. with many, very large size, succulent lobsters caught in the deep waters off the continental shelf of the United States.
Today, Boston Wholesale Lobster, is committed to resourcing and supplying the highest quality hardshell lobsters to be shipped to customers all over the world. Our quality lobsters are sent to far away locations with minimum mortality and shrinkage. Because we are located so close to Boston's Logan Airport and minutes away from seafood freight forwarders, our customers have the luxury of changing or adding to their orders at the last minute. This has proved especially helpful during large lobster promotions and holidays.