AUBURN — They didn’t grow up in a lobstering family, or even on Maine’s coast. But brothers Scott and Jon Demers are gaining more national momentum selling their line of frozen seafood meals.

In 2025, Scott & Jon’s ranked first in the frozen complete meals category, and among the top 20 fastest emerging brands, on Instacart, the largest online grocery marketplace in North America.

The annual list highlights brands resonating most with shoppers. Scott & Jon’s says the ranking underscores growing consumer demand for high-quality, protein-forward seafood meals.

Scott & Jon’s offers 12 different meals served in bowls that include pasta or rice and either shrimp, salmon or whitefish as the protein, with some meals also including vegetables.

The meals are available in more than 20,000 stores nationwide, including Target, Shaw’s, Hannaford, Walmart, Sam’s Club, BJ’s Wholesale Club, CVS, Market Basket, Whole Foods, Safeway, Giant Food, Harris Teeter, Publix and others.

THE EARLY DAYS

It wasn’t always Scott & Jon’s. When the brothers started out in 2011, the product was called Crabbies — based on their grandmother’s crab and cheese blend shared as a snack around holidays.

“We were looking for an idea to break in, to start a new business,” Scott Demers said. “And we thought taking our grandmother’s recipe, which are called crabbies, and introducing that to the market was our idea.”

Scott is the older of the two and was a banker, while Jon was a firefighter with the city of Lewiston. By 2014, Crabbies was out and lobster crostini was in, along with crab stuffed mushrooms.

The business of frozen seafood appetizers was taking off and by 2015 both men quit their jobs and plunged headfirst into the frozen food sector. “We’ve always been big fans of delicious food,” Scott said, “and we kind of grew up in a household that was food-centric.”

The parents owned a small catering company and then owned Blake’s Grill in Lisbon. Scott and Jon spent time in the restaurant.

But the brothers soon discovered that their appetizer line was seasonal, tied mostly to the holidays. “It would drop off a cliff after the Super Bowl,” Scott said. “So, we were looking for an opportunity that was more year-round, more sustainable.”

They spent a lot of time at the Spring Street Hannaford in Auburn, near their headquarters. What they observed was a lot of new brands entering the frozen entrée section, but not with seafood.

“What we saw out of these sort of legacy brands, they left a lot to be desired in terms of taste, and texture and freshness,” Scott said. So, they set out to create a product that was healthy and fresh tasting.

Jon Demers said fresh is key with seafood. “We’re delivering that experience of what fresh seafood should taste like. Someone microwaves our bowl, and they eat it, they get that same fresh experience.”

Scott Demers was quick to add there’s a reason for that.

“We figured out quickly that if you put your seafood — and everything else for that matter — into the bowl raw … and it cooks fresh in the microwave, that kind of fresh-cooked experience is leaps and bounds better for taste and quality than something that’s reheated.”

Four minutes in a microwave and the meal is steamed and seasoned to perfection. A sample of four top-sellers proved them out — no fishy smell or texture and tasted like it was sauteed in a pan.

Further proof is in the numbers, as indicated by their rankings on Instacart and their sales, which have jumped from $600,000 in 2013 to an estimated $45 million today.

A COURSE FOR THE FUTURE

Scott & Jon’s corporate offices on Main Street in Auburn house the company’s administrative team and a kitchen for product development. It has grown over the years from about 10 people to 20.

They have an additional 160 employees at production facilities in Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Despite Maine’s robust seafood industry, there wasn’t a facility that could match their needs when they started out.

They travel to the production facilities to ensure consistency and keep an eye on the operations.

With so many people at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott and Jon got their products in front new customers.

Since then, the brothers say, things have not slowed down.

“We’re experiencing a lot of growth,” Scott said. “What’s working for us is, No. 1, we’ve spent a lot of time and effort over the past two years improving the quality and the taste of the products … cooking and tasting and testing, and speaking to consumers and getting the products right.”

Shrimp Alfredo is the top seller, followed by a newcomer: a honey sesame salmon bowl, which just got picked up by Whole Foods. Shrimp scampi and garlic butter shrimp round out the top four.

The brothers said lobster will return as a protein in their lineup this year.

Instacart has been key to building the business. “It helps us get in front of eyeballs and everybody’s on their phone, and we’re popping up on Instacart now,” Scott said. “So, it’s a tool to help us drive the awareness around the brand.”

That brand is not yet a household name, something the brothers acknowledge and say they are working on.

“From a marketing perspective,” Scott said, “what it’s all about now is trying to get out into the world and let people know that we’re here, and we can offer a real value for them.”