Business Economics Major Stephen Brooks Co-Owns Brooks Trap Mill
If you've eaten a Maine lobster in the past 25 years, odds are you have UMF graduate Stephen Brooks to thank.
Brooks, along with his siblings, Mark and Julie, co-owns Brooks Trap Mill, which manufactures, distributes, and sells some 50,000 new lobster traps annually to suppliers and lobstermen scattered from New Brunswick to New Jersey. Based in Thomaston, Maine, Brooks Trap Mill also annually sells an additional 15,000 to 30,000 used traps. And from their retail stores in Bath, Portland, and Thomaston, they outfit Maine fishermen with everything they need (except boats) to haul their catch, including bait, buoys, foul-weather clothing, rope, and traps for lobster, oysters, sea bass, and shrimp.
It's safe to say that Brooks Trap Mill may be the largest trap manufacturer in Maine. And beyond? "Well, you could definitely say we're among the biggest in Canada and New England," says Brooks, who majored in business economics at UMF. "I wouldn't want to overstate anything, but we are big in the industry."
Since taking ownership of the business from his father, Karl Brooks, with Mark and Julie in 2003, Brooks has primarily overseen manufacturing and retail sales. Dealing directly with customers, however, remains his favorite part of the job. When a gale warning is up and store traffic is brisk (as lobstermen wait out a storm by attending to in-shore business), he heads for the sales floor, seeking feedback.
"You learn the most from your customers," he says. "If ten of them tell you something they bought from you is the best thing they've ever used, that's a great feeling. It really is." And after 18 years in the business, he says he's eager to develop new products and markets to meet his customers' needs.
"I'm a competitive person," says Brooks, who, along with Mark and Julie, acquired Industrial Marine Marketing in spring 2010. (With the addition of the Wakefield, R.I.-based aquaculture and shipping supply company, he hopes to see 15 to 20 percent growth in sales in southern New England and the mid-Atlantic region, which could result in more Thomaston-area manufacturing jobs.) "It's satisfying to see how much you can grow a business and build friendships at the same time. I've got customers who say to me, 'I was doing business with your father when you were still in diapers.' There are a lot of really good people in the industry. I'm lucky to deal with them."
-- By Marc Glass, managing editor of the UMF alumni magazine
