Petersburg Pilot -

Paine & Partners of San Francisco has announced the sale of Icicle Seafoods according to multiple news sources including Undercurrent.com and other seafood industry news sites.

According to Laine Welch of the Fish Factor, Pacific Seafoods is seen as a frontrunner for

buying Icicle.

Other sources theorize that Icicle is a “mini-conglomerate” that would make the company attractive to multiple buyers if broken up.

The Oregon-based Pacific Seafood Group is a family owned operation that has operations spanning the west coast from Mexico to Alaska.

The investment firm Paine & Partners bought Icicle Seafoods in 2007.

Icicle Seafoods began in 1965 when a group of employees and fishermen in Petersburg bought the Pacific American Fisheries cannery. The company has grown to own and operate processing ships and fishing boats throughout Alaska and process salmon, pollock and crab. Icicle also runs a farmed salmon business in the Pacific Northwest, with farms at Bainbridge Island, Cypress Island, Port Angeles and Hope Island, Wash.