By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Icicle Seafoods Inc. has purchased the Kodiak Salmon Packers cannery at Larsen Bay in a deal the sellers say should bode well for their employees, fishermen and Larsen Bay residents, too.

"The time was right for Larsen Bay to be part of a larger, more diversified seafood company," said Alan Beardsley, president of Kodiak Salmon Packers, in a joint statement released with Don Giles, president and chief executive officer of the larger Seattle-based fish processor.

"Icicle Seafoods will add stability and maximize the potential of this facility. I am confident this will be positive for our employees, those fishermen that have worked with us over the years and our good neighbors in the city of Larsen Bay," Beardsley said.

"I think it is great," said Bruce Schactler, a Kodiak salmon and herring fisherman who has sold fish to both companies. "In this big, world market, it would have been very easy for Kodiak Salmon Packers to say the heck with it and close the doors. They should be commended for staying in business for as long as they have.

"Icicle has the financial ability to upgrade the plant, to do deferred maintenance," Schactler said. "It will be good for the fishermen who will be involved with Icicle down there."

The transfer of ownership of Kodiak Salmon Packers comes in the wake of a much larger pending deal, in which Trident Seafoods Corp., also based in Seattle, announced plans to buy out Ocean Beauty Seafoods Inc., another major Alaska salmon packer based in Seattle.

Ocean Beauty, Alaska Pacific Seafoods and Kodiak Salmon Packers are the three major processors purchasing salmon from fishermen at Kodiak Island.

Terms of the purchase, which was completed April 4, were not disclosed, but one owner of the Larsen Bay cannery, Duncan Fields, added his agreement that it was time to sell.

"It was a small plant," said Fields, a community advocate who was in Anchorage April 6, attending the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting. "We were making money, but didn't have the capital to continue to maintain and upgrade as the industry changes."

Fields, his brothers, Wallace and Weston, and Beardsley were the major owners of the Larsen Bay plant for the past 20 years. The cannery was established in 1911 on the west side of Kodiak Island. Icicle Seafoods was founded in 1965 in Petersburg.

"Adding Larsen Bay to our operation is a great fit for our company," Icicle's Giles said. "We are obviously bullish on Alaska and the Alaska salmon industry, and this will allow us to expand to a region where we have never had a permanent presence before."

Today, Icicle operates many seafood processing facilities in Alaska, including shore plants and floating processors, and participates in most major Alaskan fisheries.

"It was important to us to have a strong, American-owned company like Icicle operating on the island," Fields said. "It will be good for the local community and salmon fishermen throughout the Kodiak management area.

"We also hope the sale to Icicle will create additional market opportunities beyond salmon for fishermen in the region."

Icicle officials indicated they expect to operate the Larsen Bay facility during the 2006 salmon season as previously planned, with the existing plant management, continuing to emphasize the production of quality Alaska salmon. The plant traditionally operates during summer months only, and at the height of production has 170 to 180 employees, Duncan Fields said.

The sale "will change, but not limit choices for fishermen," he said. "We are going to work with the current management to help during the transition."

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