By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Trident Seafoods Corp., a major Pacific Northwest processor, will acquire Ocean Beauty Seafoods in a deal announced jointly March 27 by the two firms.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Both parties will work to complete the transaction prior to the 2006 Alaska salmon season, they said. All existing Trident and Ocean Beauty processing plants will continue operations as previously planned for the coming season.

Trident will acquire Ocean Beauty's seafood processing assets and the companies are to enter into joint ventures regarding their smoked fish and Ocean Beauty's seafood distribution businesses.

Ocean Beauty and Trident have been on the forefront of developing value-added seafood products from Alaska, including retail-ready salmon, halibut and groundfish products.

Ocean Beauty's domestic distribution businesses and smoking and curing operations, including all domestic smokehouse operations, and Trident's smoking and curing operations will be placed in a joint venture between Trident and Ocean Beauty. Tribe Mediterranean Foods, formerly a subsidiary of Ocean Beauty, is not part of this acquisition and will continue to operate as an independent company.

Ocean Beauty President Mark Palmer said that the combined business will focus on retail products. "To be successful in supplying consumers with specialty products takes a coordinated, vertically integrated approach," he said. "We will have the resources and the commitment to elevate the presence of Alaska seafood."

Trident's retail and foodservice sales of wild Alaska seafood was also enhanced by its recently announced acquisition of ConAgra's Louis Kemp brand and surimi seafood operation.

"Alaska seafood is a premium protein product," said Chuck Bundrant, founder and chairman of Trident. "Our goal is to have more wild Alaska seafood produced into ready-to-cook forms for the consumer. The resources available to a combined Trident and Ocean Beauty business should result in the steady and consistent supply of high-quality, innovative specialty seafood products that today's users require."

Ocean Beauty Seafoods, founded in 1910 and based in Seattle, has company-owned processing, distribution and sales outlets in Alaska, throughout the continental United States, and Japan. Trident Seafoods was founded in 1973 by fishermen and operates seafood processing facilities throughout Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.