“I would like to thank Mark Working and David Working at Zachary Scott. They solve problems and find solutions with a calm and deliberate approach. We have an opportunity to build something of significant value to our industry, and this opportunity exists because of their efforts.”
Ben Blakey, CEO & Co-Founder, Northline Seafoods
Alaska EcosystemConsumer ProductsFinancing & AdvisoryFood / Beverage / AgricultureSeafoodTransportation & LogisticsComplex Situations
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Zachary Scott is pleased to announce the recapitalization of its client, Northline Seafoods (“Northline” or the “Company”), in a combined debt and equity financing. We appreciate the time and effort spent by Greater Commercial Lending of Nevada as the originating lender, a consortium of private investors as the equity providers, and Karr Tuttle Campbell in Seattle for legal work supporting the transaction.

We would also like to thank the ongoing partnership of the Northline management team. Ben Blakey, CEO, Drew Cohen, Chief Technical Officer, and the Northline team were instrumental in successfully navigating the transaction.

Situation

Zachary Scott has followed Northline’s journey from ideation to execution since its founding in 2017. Headquartered in Sitka, AK, Northline was founded on the premise that the current processing paradigm for delivering wild Alaskan salmon to domestic markets was unsatisfactory; that by rearranging the time and place of preparing salmon for the market, a higher-quality product could be produced at a lower price.

Northline proposed that if salmon could be deeply and quickly frozen, in the round and on the fishing grounds, then the pristine salmon could be transported and preserved until the fish could be thawed and processed some months later just in time to meet market demand – a challenging enough technical undertaking on land, but especially challenging in the waters of Bristol Bay and at scale.

Northline brought its vision to life with a prototype floating freezing platform in 2019 and 2020, but lost the prototype platform to a freak weather accident after the 2020 salmon season had concluded. Armed with two years of data and process improvement, Northline went to work reimagining its operating model, and entrusted Zachary Scott to help arrange financing of Northline’s next phase of evolution.

ZS Role

Zachary Scott worked on behalf of the Northline shareholders to recapitalize the business, placing a combination of debt and equity financing to support Northline’s design and construction of a new operating platform and to fund operations.

Results

Upon completion of the combined $63MM financing in November 2022, Northline is now poised to begin construction on a 400’ x 100’ vessel, integrating freezing, cold storage, and transport capabilities onto a single platform. Named the “Hannah,” Northline will begin construction in January 2023 in Bellingham and targets 2024 as the first season of normal operations.

We are pleased to have contributed to furthering Northline’s vision of a reimagined value chain for wild Alaskan salmon. As the nationally recognized leader in seafood M&A in the Pacific Northwest for the last two decades, we view this transaction as a landmark achievement for our practice.