Kent, Washington, U.S.A.-based Cannon Fish Company has been sold by its owner, the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association (APICDA), to E&E Foods, a Seattle-area company specializing in Alaskan seafood.
APICDA is one of six Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) corporations established in 1992. The group controls a portion of Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands quotas for groundfish, halibut and crab and exists to support the rural Alaska villages of Akutan, Atka, False Pass, Nelson Lagoon, Nikolski and St. George. APICDA acquired Cannon Fish, a seafood value-added processing and marketing company based in Seattle area, in August 2013.
The move comes after former APICDA CEO Larry Cotter retired in June 2018 and was replaced by Luke Fanning.
“We are happy to be selling CFC to a company with deep roots in both Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. E&E Foods is a leader in the seafood industry and will provide continued employment opportunities for CFC’s staff,” Fanning said in a press release. “It is the right time for APICDA to sell CFC. As an organization, we are focused on leveraging resources to maximize benefits to our CDQ member communities in Alaska. The sale proceeds will strengthen our financial position and allow us to build new programs in the Aleutian-Pribilof region that have been identified as high priorities by our board.”
E&E operates numerous shoreside seafood processing plants in Alaska, including Coffee Point Seafoods in Egegik , Pacific Star Seafoods in Kenai, and Yakutat Seafoods in Yakutat. It also operates a floating processor in Bristol Bay and Kotzebue.
The company is currently consolidating its processing operations in Washington state into a single 76,000-square-foot facility, and E&E President Randy Patrick said it planned to move CFC’s manufacturing equipment to the new location and bring on CFC’s staff to help to operate the expanded plant. The new Renton facility will also house E&E’s office and cold storage.
“E&E Foods is a growth-oriented company and we are delighted to have Cannon Fish join our family,” Patrick said in the release. “Their knowledgeable staff, sales channels, and manufacturing equipment will complement our services that include expertise in fresh and frozen seafood, processing, trading, exporting, importing, and brokering.”
