Mark Frisch, executive vice president and co-owner of Florida-based Beaver Street Fisheries, joined Catch the Current on the Seafood Expo North America show floor this week to talk about the Sea Best brand's second year partnering with Kaulig Racing and Ty Dillon for the 2025 NASCAR racing season.

Learn more about how NASCAR fits into Sea Best's marketing recipe and how Beaver Street Fisheries is staying ahead amidst the current state of uncertainty.

Listen below! 

Don't have time to listen? You're missing out! But you can also read a full transcript of the podcast interview below:

Amanda Buckle (AB): You're listening to Catch the Current. I'm Amanda Buckle.

Lorin Castiglione (LC): And I'm Lorin Castiglione.

AB: We are live in Boston for Seafood Expo North America, where we are taking the show floor by storm for an epic series we are calling "Boston 2025 in 5."

LC: That's right. We are covering as much ground as we can over the next few days, bringing you the best of the best that SENA has to offer.

AB: So, without any further ado...

AB and LC: Let's "catch the current."

AB: This is Amanda Buckle. We are recording Catch the Current without my co-host, but I have somebody else with me who is maybe more important than Lorin...

Mark Frisch (MF): Well, Lorin does a great job catching currents.

AB: We're over at Beaver Street Fisheries, and we are just talking with Mark Frisch about everything that is going on with Sea Best. And I've got to say, you have probably one of the most exciting booths with NASCAR out front.

MF: Oh, that's nice of you to say.

AB: So, tell me how the NASCAR-inspired booth came about and this partnership with SeaBest and Beaver Street Fisheries.

MF: A lot of the partnerships that I embark on typically begin with a friendship, and this one was the same. I have a childhood friend in the sport, and he connected me with the particular team we're sponsoring, Kaulig Racing, and the driver, Ty Dillon.

We limped in last year with one race. We made the deal right around this time, and we did one race last year, and then really liked the experience and thought this could be something that should be something we should do more of. So, we signed up this year to do 20 races.

AB: Oh, wow.

MF: Then we thought it would be fantastic to feature it and do something different at the seafood-focused show where everyone just wants to have product out. We want to have a cutout of the driver and a racing simulator and just mix it up a little bit.

The NASCAR simulator at the Beaver Street Fisheries booth.

AB: It certainly is a lot of fun. And when you say that you went from one race to 20 races, is this just having the Sea Best name on the car? What's involved in this partnership?

MF: So, every race, the cars drive around with the primary sponsor. We're the primary sponsor for 20 races. And the other 16 races, we're still on the car. We're just not front and center, if you will, on the hood and all the things. So, that tractor-trailer that moves the race team and the car and all that around the country is wrapped in Sea Best.

AB: That's got to be pretty cool to see.

MF: This week, it's on its way to our state of Florida from Las Vegas. So, we'll be down in South Florida this week in Homestead with the Sea Best brand out there.

AB: Wow. That's really cool. And now, consumers are seeing this product out there. Are you seeing any correlation in your sales? How are you tying this together to selling more of Sea Best products?

MF: That's always a good question. And we have to work on that, right? So, this is our first time doing anything like this with such a consumer presence, especially nationally.

We've done some regional stuff, some local stuff. We could feel the impact of that. But something like this on a national level, it's just going to take time to really figure it out. It's just part of our overall marketing recipe, if you will. So, NASCAR is a part of it this year.

Maybe next year, we'll see year-by-year. But there's a lot more to come in the Beaver Street Sea Best marketing efforts. So, we're just kind of launching with NASCAR for now.

AB: Sea Best is a name that you can find now in Walmart. I mean, it's all over. Walmart's the number one grocer right now, too. And the other thing, too, with Sea Best is that you have a lot of products.

MF: We have a lot of products, a large variety of products.  I mean, it's fish, it's crab, it's shrimp, it's lobster, it's everything. And that's one of the things we pride ourselves on, the variety of our inventory, the variety of options, and the ability to deliver to our customers on time and in full.

That's always what we strive for. And so, we're going to just keep making investments in that area, too, try to solve for any uncertainties out there, take inventory positions and fill orders.

Sea Best products from Beaver Street Fisheries. Photo Credit: Undercurrent News

AB: Because I was going to say, with all this tariff uncertainty, too, with having such a wide spread of species that you offer, does that help or hurt you?

MF: I think it helps. And it's not only the spread of species, but also the differentiation of sources, right? So, we might have the same item sourced from China, but also Vietnam.

So, we could make a shift from a country that's impacted from tariffs to a country that might not be. We try to stay ahead of the uncertainty. We try to spread the risk out amongst different countries.

AB: Time's ticking. It's day two. Final thoughts? I mean, what did you come here to accomplish? And do you think you've accomplished it yet? I mean, we still have one day left on the show floor.

MF: For me, it's just good to get out and see all of our suppliers, a lot of our customers in one location, face-to-face, talking about what we're doing, how we're making our investment this day, which is a lot of data and a lot of technology to have better insights to make faster, smarter decisions, all for the sake of delivering our orders in full and on time. And that's what it's all about.

And I'm trying to preach that to our suppliers and tell them how valuable they are to that whole supply chain, obviously, and then reinforce it to the customers and just be seen.

And frankly, have a good time with our great team here in Boston. Have a little fun because we're working on the weekend.

AB: This booth has been packed. And I got here at 10 a.m. and there was, you know, you guys are busy, busy, busy. So thanks for squeezing me in today, Mark. I appreciate it. Thank you.

MF: Thank you for stopping by.