"We've expanded our Alaska operations tremendously over the years," most recently with the acquisition of the Excursion Inlet plant, about 40 miles west of Juneau, Ocean Beauty spokesman Tom Sunderland said Aug. 11.

Ocean Beauty, still headquartered in Seattle, is now one of the largest seafood companies in the Pacific Northwest. Its company-owned processing, distribution and sales outlets are in Alaska, throughout the continental United States and Japan. A worldwide sourcing network coupled with processing and distribution enables the firm to deliver a diverse line of produced and value-added services virtually anywhere seafood is consumed, according to company officials.

Ocean Beauty also supports the Marine Stewardship Council's fishery certification program, noting that the wild Alaska salmon the company purchases come from certified well-managed sustainable fisheries.

A proposed acquisition by Trident Seafoods was called off in 2006. The two companies, however, still maintain an excellent relationship, Sunderland said. "We have done business with them and have a lot of respect for them," Sunderland said. The acquisition deal came to a halt, said Sunderland, "because they decided the fit wasn't as close as they initially thought it would be."

Mark Palmer, named president and chief operating officer in September 2005, is also chairman of the board of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, a state of Alaska agency that promotes seafood to domestic and foreign markets.

The crew of the limit-seiner Miss Sherri hauls aboard a small catch of pink and chum salmon Aug. 10, during Southeast Alaska salmon purse seine fishery outside Eliza Harbor and Admiralty Island. For decades, Alaska salmon has been a primary product for the Seattle-based processing firm, Ocean Beauty. AP PHOTO/Klas Stolpe

The company's sales focus is in retail, from white-tablecloth restaurants to supermarket chains, with a variety of fresh, frozen, canned, smoked and specialty products, Sunderland said. Ocean Beauty markets products under its company name, plus more than a dozen others. There are gourmet smoked salmon, smoked salmon salads, smoked salmon spreads, salmon fajitas, pickled herring, a variety of canned fish products with a six-year shelf life, minced clams, easy-to-prepare frozen fillets, and one of the company's most popular products, herb-crusted wild Alaska salmon burgers.

A long history in Alaska

Ocean Beauty's commitment to Alaska began in the 1930s, when its first processing operations were established in the territory of Alaska. In 1948, a distribution point was opened in Spokane, Wash. By 1954, Ocean beauty became the first seafood company to portion and vacuum pack Alaska steaks and fillets. More distribution points opened in 1956 in Pocatello, Idaho, and in Boise in 1957.

In the 1960s, the company purchased its Kodiak facility to process species from Alaska's central gulf, including salmon, cod, halibut, herring and pollock.

In 1964, another distribution facility opened at Helena, Mont.

By 1978, Ocean Beauty was ready to build a processing plant in Cordova to process Copper River salmon, coho salmon, cod and herring.

Still growing, distribution points five and six were opened in Astoria, Ore., and Salt Lake City in 1982.

Company officials acquired a Petersburg facility in 1984 for canning and freezing Southeast Alaska salmon, herring, black cod, halibut and crab. That year it also opened its seventh distribution outlet in Seattle.

Ocean Beauty purchased its Naknek plant, a seasonal operation for processing of red salmon and herring, in 1988.

By 1994, the diversified company, which also offers a range of Mediterranean food products under its Tribe brand, saw its Tribe of Two Sheiks become the No. 1 selling brand of hummus in America. Other Tribe brand products include tahini, tabouli and baba ganoush.

LASCCO and Three Star Smoked Fish Co., both leading processors of smoked fish products, were acquired in 1995 to become a specialty division of Ocean Beauty.

In 1999, the Boston-based smoke fish processor Rite Foods was acquired, and the following year, Monroe, Wash.-based smoked fish processor Circle Sea also became a division of Ocean Beauty. In 2001, Landlock Seafood One, one of the largest processors and wholesale distributors of fresh and frozen seafood in the Southwest United States, was purchased and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ocean Beauty.

In 2003, Ocean Beauty purchased Cook Inlet Processing, Alitak and Excursion Inlet production facilities, and in 2004, the company opened new distribution offices in Phoenix, and also acquired the Commander, Port Clyde and Neptune brands.

For all its growth and expansion over the past 96 years, Ocean Beauty remains dependent on many harvesters in Alaska waters for its basic, sought-after product: wild Alaska seafood. The company owns no fishing vessels and relies on a loyal contingent of fishermen, many of them from the coastal communities of Alaska, to bring in the harvest.

That relationship, over the decades, has fostered a binding tie between the company and the fishermen.