Here's a note Leader Creek Fisheries founder John Lowrance e-mailed yesterday to the company's Bristol Bay fishermen:
Dear Fishers,
Thank you for your support. As always, we would not be here without you. In recent years, large fish runs and increasing commodity prices for our products have given us all a pretty fine ride. Last year, you received $1.10 for well-handled reds, and this year you will receive a very nice increase over that. All these good things are the result of your continuous efforts to deliver better quality fish year after year, in combination with our commitment to keep pushing forward with quality initiatives, value-added products, and a first class production facility.
Leader Creek made a commitment to an all-refrigerated fleet, sockeye fillets, and a profit sharing relationship during the dark days following the $.40/pound 2001 season. It was a plan borne out of desperation. Prices for H&G in Japan had fallen to a level that would not support the processing/fishing industry as a whole. Fishers joined Leader Creek hoping that through hard work, a commitment to quality, the production of fillets, and the development of new markets in the United Sates, we could lift ourselves back into economic plenty. What you are doing on the water in terms of floating, bleeding, and sliding fish was unthinkable ten years ago. A plant producing 70% fillets was considered impossible. The idea of profit sharing with the fleet more often than not garnered the reaction: "are you crazy Lowrance" or my favorite, "he's ruining Bristol Bay". As you are all aware, the plan borne of desperation has worked out rather well for all of us, and in the process, we have changed Bristol Bay.
There is a price for all things, and you don't get to play the role I have without some cost. Our success has brought with it a huge financial and emotional commitment to running Leader Creek. More and more, I find it overwhelming.
I have decided to sell our stake in LCF in order to unload that financial commitment and risk. From amongst many potential buyers, we are lucky to have attracted the interest of the Canadian Fishing Company (Canfisco) and the Jim Pattison Group (you can read more about them in the attached press release).
Canfisco has no desire to merge or blend or combine Leader Creek with any other entity. They want us as we are: an independent, well-run, profitable enterprise. There are no plans to change anything beyond our normal organic growth. The profit sharing relationship and deal will remain the same. I will be running the company through 2011, and if I like it, I will stay into the future.
My commitment to you is that the company you have dealt with in the past is the company you will see when you arrive in Bristol Bay in 2011. The deals will remain the same, and just like every other year, you will get pushed to produce even better quality fish.
Thank you again for all your cooperation and help over the years. This friendly, dynamic, symbiotic relationship we have is really the best part of it all. I am grateful to every one of you.
Sincerely, from a lucky guy (and gal)
John and Adele
P.S. The unsung heroes in all this are the 430 LCF employees, some of whom have been with us since the beginning. Without their continuous efforts, we would not have carried the ball this far. I am grateful to them as well.
Northern Dynasty, AGS, and the CFL. Has anything good ever come out of Canada? I know money talks but there's no way this can be good for BB fishermen.
ReplyDeleteHas anything good ever come out of America?
ReplyDeleteThe Seattle Seven is a group of seven seafood companies, operating in the city of Seattle, known for negotiating a secret agreement with Exxon Corporation in 1991, relating to punitive damages resulting from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The companies, Aleutian Dragon Fisheries (ADF), Icicle Seafoods, North Coast Seafood Processors, North Pacific Processors, Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, Wards Cove Packing Co. were paid $63.75 million, but if Exxon should lose the civil case, they would repay Exxon almost all of their share of the money, which was about $750 million.
Of course it depends on what you define as good.
The Good?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jimpattison.com/corporate/presidents-message.aspx
The Jim Pattison Group
Suite 1800 - 1067 West Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 1C7
President's Message
2009 was a very good year and surpassed our company expectations...
The total results throughout The Jim Pattison Group in 2009, by almost every important measurement, were excellent and exceeded our expectations for the year.
We are truly very grateful for the very good results, especially in what turned out to be one of the most difficult years since the Great Depression.
The Bad?
http://dockets.justia.com/search?q=ICICLE+SEAFOODS%2C+INC.
Unchanged forever!
1. Indifference to Others, Reckless Disregard for the Health of Others
2. Financially Vulnerable
3. Repeately Violated
4.Failure to Pay, Intentional Malice, Trickery and Deciet, Not a Mistake
5. Deleberate False Statements
6. Misconduct Movitated by Profit
7. If Defendant had Fully Succeeded
8. Deter Future Similar Conduct...
9. Punative Damages are Properly Awarded in Cases of Economic Harm, by another Rotten Slimey Seattle Seven Seafood Specialists!
Northern Dynasty. I'd buy into that Corporation, before quite a few other Corporate Wenches in the Bristol Bay region.
Jim Pattison, a great example of a Honest Capitalist, who started selling used cars to his friends in High School, turning a 100.00 profit, into todays
7.1 Billion in Sales?http://www.jimpattison.com/entertainment/ripley-entertainment/ripleys-believe-it-or-not.aspx
Of course then you could review, you "other" Bristol Bay Processors.
Of course those self evident truths, always confuse the fleet, who's worried about the wrong Northern Dynasty, the Seattle Seven robbing you blind for decades!
"known for negotiating a secret agreement with Exxon Corporation in 1991"
ReplyDeleteA blind man is not required to see at his peril; and although he is, no doubt, bound to consider his infirmity in regulating his actions, yet if he properly finds himself in a certain situation, the neglect of precautions requiring eyesight would not prevent his recovering for an injury to himself, and, it may be presumed, would not make him liable for injuring another. So it is held that, in cases where he is the plaintiff, an infant of very tender years is only bound to take the precautions of which an infant is capable; the same principle may be cautiously applied where he is defendant.
http://www.jimpattison.com/illuminated-signs/default.aspx
How has it come about that most of the posters here speak in tongues? Can't you all get of the sauce or ganja and speak in sentances? I have nothing against idiosyncratic speech - but if your going to jerk off - do it into your pillow and quit wasting others time.
ReplyDeleteIs there a new processor from Ganja Azerbaijani too?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is we will hear about banana republics if the anonymous poster continues expounding. Long live Groundswell!
ReplyDeleteno, we cant get off the ganja. sorry.
ReplyDeleteIf we are being bought by a canadian firm, am I able to apply for a canadian work visa?
ReplyDelete