Contact: Tim Ervin
Manistee County Economic Development Office
231-723-4325
For Immediate Release
FISH LEAD FAMILY TO COOL PLACES
Manistee, Michigan – Fifty fish have enabled a family of four to thrive in pretty cool places. Like the Florida Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands. And Michigan's pine and hardwood forests that border the worlds' largest fresh water seas.
“Fish are found in cool places,” says entrepreneur Jim O'Keefe who, along with wife Kathy, owns and operates O'Keefe's Reef, located on M-55 west of the village of Wellston in Michigan's Manistee County. “They've supported us from Marco Island to northern Michigan, enabling our family to prosper in the most beautiful, tranquil and cool places in the world.”
Founded in Florida in 1992, O'Keefe's Reef is a retailer and wholesaler of apparel and hats with prints and embroideries of 50 species of fresh and salt water fish. The company has grown 40 percent since moving from Marco Island to Wellston in 2001 and distributes products to 100 retailers in the midwest, another 100 stores in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama and 25 stores scattered throughout the United States and other countries. Popular salt water fish include snook, redfish and tarpon. Top selling fresh water species include salmon, trout, bass and walleye.
“We sell about 40,000 embroidered or printed tee shirts and guide shirts a year,” says Kathy O'Keefe. “We market through retailers, from two web sites and our retail show room. We never say no to custom jobs. We'll embroider an order for just one shirt and develop custom designs for fresh or salt water fishing tournaments. We offer hats and apparel, including jackets, with more choices of fresh and salt water fish than any other business in our industry.”
Jim O'Keefe's family moved when he was a child from Spring Lake, Michigan to Florida in 1965.
“From bass to snook,” says Jim, a fishing fanatic who has angled worldwide, with his largest catch being an 800 lb. Blue Marlin.
After meeting in Florida, Jim and Kathy married in 1984. The business concept for O'Keefe's Reef emerged at Marco Island, Florida in a sport shop located across from a Hilton Hotel where Jim and Kathy sold beach products, including a line of apparel. The business bloomed when they invested $45,000 in a standard line of apparel featuring the most popular salt water fish.
“Fish are cool and socially acceptable,” says Jim. “Fishing is a way to escape, to be on the water. And people who like fishing or the places that fish live enjoy our fish apparel and hats and all of the options we offer in fabrics and color.”
In addition to love of the outdoors and remote, wild places, the O'Keefe's also share a passion for Manistee County.
“I had a small cabin in the Manistee County forest where I'd escape for a month each year,” says Jim. “After Kathy and I met in Florida, we could not have been more surprised to find that we shared a love for virtually the same woodlot in Manistee County.”
Kathy's brother, rock legend Ted Nugent, introduced her to the woods and waters of the Manistee National Forest which turned out to be only five miles away from Jim's cabin. Jim and Kathy, along with children Rachel and Brennan, spent one month each year in the Manistee County woods while building the business in Florida.
“During our 2001 visit to Michigan, I turned to Jim and told him I wanted us to have a home in the Manistee County woods,” says Kathy. “We found a great spot with a 1600 square foot building that would hold our business. We bought it, left Florida the following February and haven't looked back. I love cold weather, the change of seasons and living in real woods.”
Having just moved into their new quarters on M-55, a state road that runs from the City of Manistee on Lake Michigan to Tawas City on Lake Huron, Jim sees no downside to being an entrepreneur in this rural Michigan county with a population of less than 25,000.
“We've maintained all of the salt water business we developed in Florida and southeastern United States,” he says. “We ship worldwide using UPS, have a growing internet business and have two sales reps opening new markets.”
And just as northern Michigan has been kind to O'Keefe's Reef, it has also been good to the O'Keefe family.
Daughter Rachel was the valedictorian in her senior year at Brethren High school and is now a freshman enrolled in pre-law at the University of Michigan. Son Brennan is a freshman at Brethren High and shares his father's obsession for fishing when he isn't involved with varsity football or snowboarding at nearby Crystal Mountain.
“During her first week of school, Rachel called to say that she had seen someone walking across campus with our University of Fishigan T-Shirt,” says Kathy. “Be glad, I told her. Because it’s that shirt and fish that have gotten us to where we are.”
Jim O’Keefe has advice for entrepreneurs looking to run their business from rural places like Manistee County.
“It’s a slower pace and it’s a lot less stress. You have to care about your quality of life to appreciate it. It’s a great place to live and raise a family. The tradeoff is that you have to work just a little bit harder to enjoy all of this. That’s a small price to pay for making a living in a really cool place.”
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For more information: Visit O’Keefe’s Reef at 15595 Caberfae Highway (M-55), Wellston, MI 49689; Ph: 231-848-7333; Fax: 231-848-7332 or visit on-line at www.okeefesreef.com or okreef@kaltelnet.net