By JIM KINNEY

Business writer



Alan J. Axler is good at making new products the old-fashioned way at Springfield Smoked Fish Co.



Four years ago when a friend stopped serving bacon only to have his son turn up his nose at any of the available substitutes, Axler came up with Brekfish, a crispy, smoky, but healthy and kosher substitute for bacon made of smoked salmon.





Brekfish, a new product from the Springfield Smoked Fish Co.







"There are only four ingredients: water, salt, salmon and smoke," a white-coated Axler explained as workers cut fish behind him at the company's small and appetizingly aromatic factory on Switzer Avenue.

Then about a year ago the owner of an African market in Worcester called Axler. Could he smoke a thick salmon steak or smoke whole, gutted tilapia and mackerel, with their heads on, so he can give his customers a taste of home?

"They saw one of our delivery trucks," Axler said. "We'll take new business from anywhere. I can come up with the product. We have the expertise and I think I have a pretty good palate. I can make things work."

But the challenge is getting products, particularly Brekfish, into stores where customers can see it and buy it.

"It takes money," Axler said. "Anybody who tries the product likes the product."

Last fall, a friend suggested he submit the application for a business makeover by Forbes Small Business magazine. His story ended up running on the Web site CNN.com

"So our orders are a little bit up because of that," he said.

Springfield Smoked Fish has been around since 1934 and owned by Axler's family since 1967.

There are just nine workers, including Axler. They still slice fish by hand, brine it by soaking it in a saltwater solution and bathe it for days in flavorful hardwood smoke.

"We're one of the few companies that still does this, flavor our fish with real smoke," he said.

The company has about $500,000 a year in sales, mostly through Jewish delicatessens.

But the market for standbys like lox, the thinly sliced smoked salmon eaten on bagels, is shrinking.

"We've been in trouble for a long time," Axler said, "but we've been keeping our heads above water."

Stores are reluctant to carry a new product, though. He sells Brekfish on the company Web site, but shipping a perishable product can cost $20, more than twice the $7.95 asking price.

Axler hopes that a national firm will buy the recipe for Brekfish and market it on a large scale, but that's unlikely in this economy because food giants are cutting, not launching brands, he says.

Forbes' experts told him to market through Jewish delis and health-food markets.

Larry B. Katz, owner of Arnold's Meats, said he's made fans for Brekfish after telling a restaurant to take three pounds or so as a trial. He sells about 30 pounds of Brekfish a week between Arnold's locations in Chicopee and East Longmeadow.

"It's not the most popular thing in Chicopee," he said. "But, people like it."

Katz said store owners who are reluctant to stock products like Brekfish are hurting themselves. "I love having things the big chains don't carry," Katz said, "because then you become a destination and they might pick up a steak or a roast while they are here."

Jim Kinney can be reached at

jkinney@repub.com