A longtime seafood processing company headquartered in Bellingham will be closing in June.
Bornstein Seafoods, which was founded in Bellingham in 1934 and is a third-generation family-owned business, will close its processing operations and headquarters on June 19 and lay off 72 workers, according to the Washington State Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification database.
Michael Hogan, the public affairs administrator for the Port of Bellingham, confirmed the closure to Cascadia Daily News.
“It is our understanding Bornstein plans to sub-lease their building to another food processing company consistent with the approved uses for the property,” he said.
Representatives from Bornstein Seafoods did not respond to repeated requests for comment from CDN.
Bornstein’s headquarters will be consolidated into Bornstein’s Astoria, Oregon, office while the processing plant will be moved to the company’s two locations in Oregon, according to the Daily Astorian. Fifty workers at Bornstein’s Newport, Oregon, facility will also be laid off.
Some of the Bellingham Bornstein employees would be transferred to the Astoria operation, Hogan said.
The Bellingham plant processed a variety of fish and dungeness crab, according to its website. It also provided custom processing, a custom smokehouse and value-added production programs.
The groundfish processing in Bellingham closed in 2019 and the company lost its Ilwaco, Washington facility in February to a fire, according to Seafood Source.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
