A taste for business

When he was working as a seafood buyer in the 1990s, Greg Bukuras would often bring home crab rangoon from a local Chinese restaurant. His wife, Jeanette, had a taste for the crispy appetizer.

Inspired by the thought that he could make and sell an even tastier crab rangoon than what he was buying, Bukuras began experimenting in the kitchen of the couple's Norwell home.

"He just didn't see what the big deal was," Jeanette Bukuras said in an interview. "He said, 'You know, I could make a better one than this.' We ended up playing with the recipe at home. We got a nice flavor to the filling."

From that successful experiment, and the couple's realization that crab rangoon was hard to find outside of Chinese restaurants, was born a family business that today has earned them a niche in the food industry.

The Original Rangoon Company, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is now the nation's largest supplier of frozen crab rangoon, according to market data cited by the couple.

"We never imagined how it would turn out," Jeanette Bukuras, 46, said of the company, which employs nearly 200 people at its Norwell headquarters and its manufacturing plants, in Needham and Framingham.

In addition to its best-known products, the company sells a growing line of other frozen appetizers, including scallops wrapped in bacon and filet mignon wrapped in black-peppered bacon. The firm supplies its products to most major supermarket chains, as well as to club stores, overseas military commissaries, and restaurant distributors.

Sales have grown steadily, most recently rising from $14 million in 2005 to $24 million last year, when the Framingham plant was added. The couple estimates that 2007 sales will hit $30 million.

"We've been ahead of the trend," Greg Bukuras, 49, said. "A decade ago, you'd go to the supermarket and you might find mozzarella sticks and small-sized pizza snacks, but that's about it. If you go there now, there's quite an expanded category."

Another strength is that the company's products are all made by hand.

"Every piece is different, so they have that homemade look, which is what people like," said Bukuras, who has his raw ingredients shipped from around the world. The crab meat comes from Canada, the scallops from as far away as China.

Jane Magown, a family friend from Norwell, is not surprised by the couple's success.

"Greg is one of, if not the, hardest-working individuals that I know," Magown said. "When he began to do this, I don't think it was pie in the sky. In his mind, Greg had a plan -- not a business plan, but an idea of what he thought would be a popular food item."

Prior to devoting himself full time to the family business, Bukuras, who grew up in West Roxbury, had worked in the seafood industry for two decades, most recently serving as director of sales and procurement for Aslanis Seafood, then of Quincy. Jeanette Burkuras learned about the food business from her father, who ran several pizza and sub shops when she was growing up in Malden.

After the Bukurases devised their crab rangoon recipe, Greg approached his bosses at Aslanis to see if they might want to market it. Company officials declined but allowed him to launch a business on the side.

In 1996 the couple decided to give it a try. They lined up a manufacturer in Boston, and Jeanette brought their product to area supermarkets. Eight months later, the business was so busy that Bukuras quit his job to devote himself to the new company full time. Today he serves as president and chief executive officer, and Jeanette is the company's communications director.

Over the years other new products have followed, many of them introduced after experiments in the couple's own kitchen.

While the business can be all-consuming, the Bukurases, who have two children in college, find time for hobbies and community involvement. Jeanette has been a Girl Scout leader and is active with South Shore Habitat for Humanity.

Her connection with Habitat became stronger last year, when the Original Rangoon Company, as part of its 10th anniversary celebration, donated $37,000 to the South Shore chapter.

"We decided since we started our business from home, we wanted to pick a company that embodied a house, and Habitat fit the bill very well," Jeanette said.

Greg Burkuras said he is proud that he and Jeanette have shown their children that you don't have to work for someone else your whole life.

"We started this 10 years ago, when I was 39 and Jeanette was 37," he said. "So you don't necessarily have to think once you are 40, you are stuck in a job forever. You don't know what's going to happen."

John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.