Though sales boomed for Sitka Salmon Shares during the pandemic, the direct-to-consumer fish seller and processor has been unable to continue that success into 2022 and shut down its Sitka processing plant on June 6, laying off 40 workers.
Company co-founder Marsh Skeele, of Sitka, said that despite the closure of its processing plant, the company plans to continue buying and selling fish, working with fishermen and other processors.
Skeele said problems that led to the shutdown of the plant became apparent in December, when the expected number of new customers for Sitka Salmon Shares didn’t materialize.
Sitka Salmon Shares specializes in shipping fresh seafood to buyers throughout the country. They bought the fish directly from Sitka commercial trollers and processed it for shipping.
Regular customers returned at a high rate in late 2021, Skeele said, “but then trying to grow … was proving ineffective, like our marketing wasn’t working. We weren’t able to add new members.”
Despite the red flags, operations at the Smith Street center continued through spring.
“In April, it was like, ‘Oh, these numbers aren’t working,’ but we were still hopeful that sales would improve,” Skeele said. “By May it was like, ‘OK, how are we going to figure it out? How to get through this.’ And by mid-May as a management team, we were like, ‘I don’t know how we do this.’”
On June 3 the company announced it would shut down fish processing in Sitka.
The plant closed on June 6, giving workers only three days’ notice, former Salmon Shares fleet manager Lauren Mitchell told the Sitka Sentinel via email.
“The suddenness of the plant closure hit everyone pretty hard, but I am proud to have been part of the Salmon Shares team for the last two seasons. It was an honor to work with such a dedicated group of fishermen who really care about the quality of their fish,” Mitchell wrote. “We drove prices for all fishermen in the community, even changed the way other processors were buying fish. Overall, it was great while it lasted!”
Longtime Sitka troller Eric Jordan sold his fish to Salmon Shares for several years, and said he appreciated the company’s business model.
“They were going to pay one price for each species of salmon, one price for king salmon regardless of size, whether it’s white or red, and I really liked that they promoted quality … and really sped up delivery times for us fishermen,” Jordan said.
He said he’s personally affected by the closure because his membership with the Seafood Producers’ Cooperative ended when his business with Salmon Shares began.
“For one, the Seafood Producers Co-Op that my father and my son and I have been members of for years terminated our membership because they saw a conflict with me being a member of Sitka Salmon Shares,” Jordan said.
Jordan said he has reapplied for membership in Sitka Seafood Producers Co-Op.
Sitka Salmon Shares got started in 2011 by selling Alaska seafood to a small cadre of friends in Illinois, Skeele recalled, but grew due to the popularity of fresh Alaska salmon.
The company boomed in 2020 as Americans trapped at home sought out higher end seafood.
“Sales started to really skyrocket and all of a sudden our sales, it was incredible, like nothing you’ve ever seen,” Skeele said. “People are stuck at home looking for food, and we were in the right place at the right time. So we grew really quickly and added a ton of members. So basically for all of 2020 we were just trying to try to get enough fish.”
At its peak, the Sitka plant processed over 100,000 pounds of fish in a month, Skeele said. But as 2022 wore on, the company would have needed significantly more throughput to cover overhead and make ends meet at the plant.
“The cost of every pound of fish that went through the plant was just astronomical and the model didn’t work,” he said.
Salmon Shares operates on a subscription model in which buyers pay a monthly fee for a salmon box, though one-time boxes are also for sale on the company website.
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