During the winter of 1965 a group of local fishermen and employees purchased the
Pacific American Fisheries cannery in Petersburg, Alaska, with visions of building
a superior seafood company. Though back then the company was incorporated as
Petersburg Fisheries, Inc. (PFI), it was the beginning of what would eventually
become Icicle Seafoods, Inc.
Innovative seafood
solutions came early in Icicle's history, with the development of year-round
processing facilities and eventually floating processors like the Arctic Star,
Bering Star, and Discovery Star.
These concepts were
radical to Alaska's fishing industry in the early days, but enabled the company
to provide stable employment, a variety of seafood products throughout the year
and the opportunity to follow fishermen to remote coastal fishing locations
where fish would not otherwise get harvested.
The success of this program led to the development of more shore side
facilities in Seward, Homer, Egegik and more recently Larsen Bay with support sites at
Ninilchik, Dillingham, Dutch Harbor, and Naknek. Also along the
way Icicle purchased tenders, crabbers, trawlers and various other support
vessels and barges to help provide fishermen with better markets and structure
a larger base from which the company could expand its operations and diversify
its product mix.
One example of the quest for
product diversification came with the purchase in 1999 of the Pollock and Cod
processor Northern Victor and its five combination trawlers. Another was
building the surimi seafood processing facility in Bellingham, Washington that
put the company in the value-oriented seafood analog product business; another
established our Astoria, Oregon canned salmon labeling and warehousing
operation that allows us to literally follow product from the ocean to the
customer; another was opening the first full time multi-product sales office in
Japan; and finally the establishment of an international in-house trading
division all contribute to the company’s success.
While physical
facilities are important, the company’s single most important asset is people -
the dedicated employees who work so hard, the fishermen who loyally deliver
their catches, the customers, suppliers, bankers, etc who have been there
through good times and bad.
While Icicle continues to seek new ways to improve and supplement the products
and services that we offer, the company never loses sight of what makes us
viable:
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The commitment to offer fishermen the best possible locations and programs to
sell their fish
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The commitment to being an employer that everyone wants to work for
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The commitment to provide the highest quality seafood and service to our
customers
We believe the vision of our founders has come true.