HISTORY
Union
Fish Company’s origin in 1864 centered upon Thomas McCollam and his
successful efforts to finance and outfit his schooners, the Wild Gazelle
and Flying Mist as part of a six vessel 1865 cod fishing trip to the Sea
of Okhotsk. The thousands of tons of fish that were brought back
by these vessels was traded by McCollam who later set up curing stations
to salt and dry the fish on Belvedere Island in the San Francisco Bay,
across from what is now Sausalito. McCollam, who brought in
partners to increase capital in the early years, called his company
McCollam Fishing and Trading Company. In addition to cod fishing,
the company’s vessels carried provisions to Alaska and often returned
with both fish and furs.
In 1874 Thomas McCollam established a cod fishing station at Pirate Cove
on Popof Island's north coast in the Shumagin Islands group in the
Aletuian archipelago, SW Alaska. The fishermen that worked the
unfriendly waters of Alaska in small dories along with the individuals,
both men and women, that manned the shore stations, were true pioneers.
In
the 1890’s, McCollam merged his company with another pioneer in the
industry, Lynde and Hough. The Belvedere processing plant became
known as Union City and the newly expanded operation referred to itself
as "Union Fish Company."
Fire has
greatly transfigured the history of the company. A 1937 fire in
the Belvedere plant closed down the plant forever. Cannery fires
in Alaska also occurred. The company moved to Clay Street in San
Francisco, where the Embarcadero Center now stands. As the years
progressed, the company sold all its plants; the schooners went off to
the movie studios or were sold for other purposes. The company’s
steamers were commandeered for the war effort against Japan. The
company focused on marketing salt cod, produced by others in Canada,
exporting products to other countries and heavily servicing the islands
of Hawaii.
In the 1970s and 1980s, we were a significant domestic trader of seafood
products. Much of this product was Alaskan and our export
activities were good. Our only imports were Canadian products.
Supply of most of our products, even though frozen or cured, was
seasonal. In some cases we were able to anticipate off-season
demands and “put away” products for our customers' use during the
off-season. Two major factors changed our company substantially;
first, the Japanese and other foreign interests started heavily buying
up our fishery sources and drastically reduced the opportunity for
export trading. The second factor was the revolutionary spread of
the use of the fax machine, which made it extremely easy for end-users
to locate and make contact with primary suppliers. The role of the
middleman was disappearing. Many well established west coast
trading companies, some with histories as long as Union Fish Company,
started struggling and eventually shut their doors. We were very
fortunate that under the leadership of Stanley L. “Butch” Cocks and his
father, the company changed its primary focus to one of an importer.
The concept of having seasonal products year-round by using various
geographically separated sources of supply coupled with better handling
and freezing techniques made this possible.
Charles Cocks became active in the
management of Union Fish Company in the 1890's. By the 1930's, the
family had taken over the company in full. The company operated
for 100 years under the leadership of Charles Cocks, Stanley L. Cocks
Sr. and Stanley L. Cocks Jr. Through the generous actions of
the Cocks family, the company was turned over to its non-family
employees in October of 1999 under an Employee Stock
Ownership Trust led by former President, Kenneth T. Hild. After 25 years
of commendable service and leadership, Kenneth T. Hild retired March
2009. The company is still an ESOP, now operating under the direction of
current President, Scott J.B. Smith.