Saving Seafood

Wells Fargo: Peter Pan in “Imminent Danger of Insolvency,” Asks Court to Put in Receivership

April 30, 2024 — Last Wednesday, Northwest lender Wells Fargo bank asked the King County Superior Court to move Peter Pan Seafoods into receivership to protect creditors. The news comes as more lawsuits are being filed by fishermen who claim the company has not paid them for deliveries last year.

Wells Fargo was the single biggest lender to the iconic but financially troubled seafood processor last year. Wednesday’s petition to the court names Peter Pan Seafood Company, Alaska Fish Holdings, and Raymond Machine Shop as owing more than $60 million, according to a report by SeafoodSource.

The petition was filed by Wells Fargo Managing Director Gary Harrigian and asks the court to appoint the Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.-based Stapleton Group — a specialist in maximizing the recovery of capital for creditors — as controller of Peter Pan’s assets.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

ALASKA: Silver Bay Seafoods to acquire Peter Pan Seafoods’ Alaska operations

April 10, 2024 — Silver Bay Seafoods and Peter Pan Seafoods announced on April 4 that the agreement for Silver Bay to acquire Peter Pan’s Valdez facility has been finalized, and Silver Bay plans to operate the Peter Pan facilities in Port Moller and Dillingham for the 2024 salmon season.

Shifting operations of the two facilities to Silver Bay is a component of a more extensive restructuring that is still being finalized. Silver Bay would acquire Peter Pan’s processing facilities and support sites in this restructuring after the 2024 salmon season. Peter Pan will continue conducting the remaining activities needed to close out 2023 operations, including sales and accounting functions. Both companies are committed to a seamless transition and minimal disruption to fishermen, communities, and employees.

The plants owned by Peter Pan in Dillingham, Port Moller, and King Cove produce high-quality sockeye salmon that is also made in the plants owned by Silver Bay in False Pass and Naknek. King Cove also produces a variety of other species. Combining Alaska operations would allow anglers to benefit from improved services and the fish to be processed closer to the point of catch, further enhancing the quality of the pack and the diversity in product forms.

Silver Bay Seafoods is an integrated processor of frozen shrimp, herring, whitefish, and squid products for domestic and export markets. It opened its doors in 2007 as a single salmon processing facility in Sitka. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest seafood companies in Alaska, operating nine domestic processing facilities throughout the state.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

ALASKA: Silver Bay Seafoods taking over Peter Pan Seafoods’ Alaska operations

April 6, 2024 — Silver Bay Seafoods has acquired Peter Pan Seafoods’ seafood processing facility in Valdez, Alaska, U.S.A. and will operate its other Alaska plans in 2024.

The agreement, announced 4 April, will see Silver Bay operate Peter Pan’s Port Moller and Dillingham facilities for the 2024 season, and then acquire them after the season ends. With Peter Pan’s closure of its King Cove plant in January 2024 and no announcement that it will reopen by summer, the company will effectively have no physical plant remaining in the state of Alaska. Additionally, it has agreed to transfer the licensing for its Demmings, Humpty Dumpty, and Double Q canned salmon brands to Silver Bay.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Peter Pan Seafoods cancels A season processing at King Cove

January 24, 2024 — Peter Pan Seafoods has canceled processing for the A season of 2024 at its large King Cove facility, citing “tumultuous” conditions in global seafood economics, but vowed to be open for the B season, and firmly committed to Alaska, its fleet and communities where they do business.

“We did not come to this decision quickly or easily,” the company said when announcing the forthcoming closure on Jan. 12. “The industry is facing inflation, interest rates hikes, financing challenges, and high fuel costs. We have worked through these issues as diligently as possible and have explored possible options.”

“We remain committed to continuing to provide the best service and support possible to our fleet, communities, and stakeholders while continuing our mission to be an exemplary global supplier of top-quality and responsibly sourced seafood. Looking to the future, we will employ more than 1,000 this year as we open the King Cove facility for the 2024 B Season and our other three facilities as normal for the salmon season,” the company said.

In years past the King Cove processing facility has processed seafood on a year-round basis and been closed down only for a couple of weeks at year’s end. Workers there, brought in on a seasonal basis, have processed king crab, opilio crab, Tanner crab, Alaska pollock, cod salmon halibut, and black cod.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

Peter Pan Seafood will require COVID vaccine for employees

September 2, 2021 — Peter Pan Seafood announced Wednesday, 1 September, it will require all shoreside employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as case numbers are on the rise in the U.S. states of Alaska and Washington.

The company’s new policy will go into effect by tiers. The first tier will pick up the remaining 5 percent of unvaccinated workers at processing plants and support facilities around Bristol Bay, Alaska, and at its Valdez processing plant, as well as at warehouses in Washington. All employees in tier one must be fully vaccinated by 1 October. Employees at the Peter Pan facility in King Cove, Alaska, face mandatory vaccination under Peter Pan’s tier two timeline. The vaccine policy does not extend to the fleet, but Peter Pan said it encourages its fishermen to get the vaccine and it said it will help them get vaccine appointments in Seattle or Alaska.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Peter Pan raises Bristol Bay base price; meager king salmon return shuts Alaska fisheries

July 23, 2021 — Late last week, Peter Pan Seafood raised its base price for sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay from $1.10 to $1.25 “after gauging the strength of the run and the market,” said the company in a press release.

“We felt it was only responsible to push the base price up to $1.25, once again demonstrating our commitment and our partnership with the harvesters,” said Jon Hickman, Peter Pan’s vice president of Operations.

Peter Pan is also now offering a late season incentive of $0.10 for harvesters to stay in the water and keep fishing. This is only for fish harvested after July 18.

Peter Pan was the first out of the gate this season to announce its initial base price of $1.10 early in the season “to put fishermen at ease that they would receive a fair price and to help them plan their finances for the year,” the company reported.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Peter Pan posts USD 1.10 per pound for Bristol Bay sockeye

June 21, 2021 — Peter Pan Seafood shook up the world’s largest wild salmon run on 19 June with the announcement it will pay a base price of USD 1.10 (EUR 0.84) per pound for sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

The price upholds reports of a strong market for wild sockeye and is a welcome development for Bristol Bay fishermen, who were disappointed by last season’s base price of USD 0.75 (EUR 0.63).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Early-season prices for Copper River salmon sky-high

May 24, 2021 — Prices for sockeye and king salmon out of the Copper River, Alaska, were sky high after the first couple openers of the season last week. Jon Hickman, Peter Pan Seafood’s vice president of operations, said in a news release that his company paid USD 12.60 (EUR 10.30) for sockeye and USD 19.60 (EUR 16.05) for king salmon.

Hickman said Peter Pan’s markets could handle the high ex-vessel prices, a welcome development for Copper River fishermen after an abysmal season last year.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Under new ownership, Peter Pan says it will focus on value added products

January 15, 2021 — Peter Pan, the seafood processing company with an array of plants in Southwest Alaska, had been struggling to keep up with competitors.

So, when its owner, Japanese seafood giant Maruha Nichiro, initially announced its sale of Peter Pan to three buyers, it said it expected a loss of almost $28 million.

The deal means the company is now vertically integrated, so all stages of production and marketing — usually operated separately — are now under one owner. It also places Peter Pan under American ownership.

One of the three buyers is Northwest Fish. Its owner, Rodger May, is the president of “New Peter Pan.” The Na’-nuk Investment Fund, managed by McKinley Capital, a private equity group, is another. The RRG Global Partners Fund is the third buyer.

McKinley Chairman Rob Gillam said the buyers see the deal as an investment in sustainably harvested Alaska seafood. But they agree that Peter Pan needs to up its marketing game.

“The best fish in the world isn’t any good if you can’t get it to people who want to buy it. So, that was really critical,” he said.

Read the full story at KDLG