Deteriorating finances have led Seattle-based Great Pacific Seafoods to declare bankruptcy.
The company has shuttered its three seafood processing plants in Kenai, Whittier and Anchorage that processed salmon from the Copper River, Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet and cod from the Gulf of Alaska, according to the Alaska Dispatch News. It had already shut down its Arctic chum operations, based in Kotzebue, Alaska, last year, the paper reported.
A call made by SeafoodSource to Great Pacific Seafoods was not returned on Wednesday, 1 June. But Great Pacific Seafoods President Daniel DeMatteis issued a statement to the Peninsula Clarion that said the company’s deteriorating finances led Great Pacific’s major lender to end its line of credit, leaving the company without money to begin the fishing season, DeMatteis’ statement said.
"Without a line of credit, we did not have access to sufficient working capital to begin the season," he wrote.
Great Pacific’s bankruptcy filing shows the company had revenue of USD 21.2 million (EUR 19 million) in 2015, down from USD 26.5 million (EUR 23.7 million) in 2014. The company listed assets valued at USD 12.4 million (EUR 11.1 million) and liabilities of USD 12.3 million (EUR 11 million). It lists more than 200 creditors, with the largest being U.S. Bank, Zions First National Bank and the U.S. Small Business Administration.
According to the Peninsula Clarion, Great Pacific employed more than 300 workers during the summer fishing season.
Great Pacific Seafoods President Daniel DeMatteis told the newspaper the company’s financial situation was due to a steep drop in the price of roe due to the Russian embargo, as well as lower Japanese demand and the rise of the power of the yen against the U.S. dollar. A minimum wage increase in Alaska and the elimination of a federal visa program that had allowed foreign students to work temporary jobs with Alaska’s fish-processing companies also hurt the company, he said.
