Importing wine a family affair - [SouthCoastToday.com]

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Mario Ferreira
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Importing wine a family affair - [SouthCoastToday.com]

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PORTUGUESE FEAST: Importing wine a family affair

By TYRA PACHECO
Standard-Times correspondent
July 30, 2007 6:00 AM

As SouthCoast residents toast health, happiness, and life forever with a glass of Madeira wine at the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament, brothers Jose and Fred Saraiva will also toast to 20 years of importing that very wine.

Saraiva Enterprises, Inc. is the largest importer of Madeira wine on the east coast. The New Bedford-based company imports between 120,000 and 150,000 cases of wine annually, at an estimated value of $5 million.

For the past 12 years, Saraiva Enterprises has been the exclusive importer of Madeira wine for the feast, and the only importer in the world authorized to import it in barrels.

Originally founded by Armenio Saraiva as a fish business in 1977, Saraiva Enterprises started to shift their focus to wine during a strike in the fishing industry in the 1980s.

"My father always had a good view of things to come," said Fred. "He could always predict where things were going."

Armenio Saraiva came from Linhares de Beira in Portugal to the United States in 1969, a mason in search of work.

"He always had that entrepreneurial spirit in him," said Fred. "He wanted to start his own business, salting cod which is a Portuguese staple."

A year later, Armenio sent for his family. Jose, the eldest son, joined the family business as a teenager, but Fred went on to pursue a business career separate from the family.

Although the fish business was a success, Armenio always had a love for wine, a love that would eventually take over the business.

"We used to joke around that the reason he got into the wine business was he could never really make a good batch of wine so he decided to go into importing it," said Fred.

During the 1980s, Armenio started rethinking the future of the company. With fish prices on the rise, the demand began to fall.

"He wasn't too comfortable where the seafood industry was going and that's when we started to shift gears," said Fred. "We continued the seafood business until about 5 years ago, but it slowly became less and less."

Armenio was diagnosed with cancer in 1997, prompting Jose to take over his father's role. With the help of his sister, Lisa, they kept the business going.

"After he passed away in 2000, I needed more help, because our company was growing and we needed help," said Jose. "We needed to do new things to get the business going and developing. That's when I called Fred to come in."

Together, the siblings made the decision to give up the fish business.

"As the wine business was growing, it was demanding more and more time," said Fred. "We had one on the rise and one on the decline."

"It just made more sense to go into the wine business," said Jose.

In fact, it made so much sense that the Saraivas are currently expanding their warehouse complex, doubling it in size. Today the company employs 10 people, and they are looking forward to growing into their new space.

"We're a growing company and we see that this is the future for us," said Jose.
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