Silver Bay Seafoods, a Sitka, Alaska-based integrated processor of salmon, herring and squid products, has acquired Seattle-based food processing company Orca Bay Foods, a nationwide distributor of value-added seafood and battered and breaded vegetables, among other products.
The two companies have been working together for several years, with Silver Bay supplying large volumes of seafood and Orca Bay managing secondary processing, sales and marketing.
The acquisition, announced in early January, allows Silver Bay to “enter secondary processing with a partner who has decades of experience and demonstrated success,” Cora Campbell, president and chief executive officer of fishermen-owned Silver Bay Seafoods, said.
Orca Bay Foods will continue to operate as a separate business with current management in place.
Silver Bay Seafoods, founded in 2007, celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2022. Since its launch, it has grown to become a major salmon buyer with six state-of-the art, high-capacity Alaska plants, as well as three facilities and several offload sites along the California coast.
Orca Bay Foods, founded in 1981, offers North American distribution of crab, fish, other seafood, in addition to meat substitutes and vegan products. The company first opened a processing plant in 1992, and currently has a 77,000 square foot processing facility in South Seattle, as well as headquarters offices in the same area.
This marks the third time that Orca Bay Foods has experienced an ownership change in the past four years. Sealaska Corp. bought the company from owner Phil Crean in 2019 before selling it back to Crean in 2021.