Icicle Seafoods, Inc.

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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 R.M. Thorstenson, Northern Victor, and Gordon Jensen.

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. We believe the vision of our founders has come true.