10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2015
EDWARD STRATTON — The Daily Astorian
Englund Marine & Industrial Supply moved into its new 44,000-square-foot store in 2006, incorporating the industrial
supply inventory it bought with Fisher Brothers in 2001.
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we’ve grown 50 percent as a company’
Continued from Page 1A
the company’s slow season
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Coast and west from Mon-
tana, south from Westport,
Wash., and north from Phoe-
nix, Ariz. The company now
employs 126 at its 11 loca-
tions across the Western U.S.
That’s up from 98 in 2004
and 112 in 2009, said Chief
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vis. Employees are split, 80
on the retail side and 46 work-
ing in the company’s quickly
growing wholesale opera-
tions. On average, said Davis,
employees of Englund stay
there for 9.3 years, far above
the 4.6-year national average,
according to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor and Statistics.
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we’ve grown 50 percent as a
company,” said Davis of the
company’s revenues, point-
ing out a 36 percent growth
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80 percent in wholesale.
Retail sales still make
up about 65 percent of the
company’s revenues, said
Kurt Englund, adding that
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is still “the backbone of our
business.”
While retail makes up the
bulk of the company’s reve-
nues, the wholesale business
allows the company to buy
supplies at better prices and
ultimately make more money,
Davis said.
Still family owned
Company President Kurt
Englund did most of the
talking for his family at the
gathering Saturday at Englund
Marine, as father Jon Englund,
who’s served as CEO for the
past 35 years, listened.
His father is 77, said Kurt
Englund, but plans on staying
involved in Englund Marine
as long as he can, after being
thrust to the head of the com-
pany in 1980 when Axel, who
started the company when
Jon was 7, died.
Jon Englund’s sons have
been involved with the com-
ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian
Victor Diego, left, and Miguel Rivera, both of Warren-
ton, cut up whiting at Pacific Seafood’s subleased
space at North Tongue Point. When the company’s
fish processing plant in Warrenton burned down in
June 2013, it moved to Astoria and helped boost rev-
enue at the city’s Public Works Department.
Seafood: ‘We
are committed
to rebuilding
in Warrenton’
Continued from Page 1A
Submitted
Axel Englund
Daily Astorian file
Members of Englund Marine & Industrial Supply founder
Axel Englund’s family gathered for the grand opening of
the company’s new Astoria location in May 2006. From left
are his daughter-in-law Mary Jean Englund; Theresa Turn-
er, manager of Englund Marine & Industrial Supply; his
daughter Suzanne Fleck; his wife, Freda Englund; and his
son and successor as CEO, Jon Englund.
pany since the late ’80s and
early ’90s, managing its var-
ious locations. Jay Englund,
48, joined in 1986 full time
and manages the company’s
raft shop in Warrenton. Kurt
Englund joined in 1991 and
manages the Astoria location.
They also have two cous-
ins, with the company for
about 30 years, who man-
age locations in Newport
and Coos Bay. And there
are plenty of locations to
manage. It’s too early to tell
whether the fourth-generation
of Englunds, who are still in
school, will be interested in
the family business, Kurt En-
glund said.
Growing
Between 1966 and 1993,
Englund Marine added loca-
tions in Ilwaco and Westport,
Wash.; Newport, Charleston
and Warrenton in Oregon;
and Eureka and Crescent
City, Calif.
In 1983, Jon Englund, by
then the head of the company,
entered the wholesale market
by buying U.S. Distributing
in Portland, starting the En-
glund Marine Group, which
includes several subsidiaries.
In 1994, it purchased marine
distributor Seacoast Supply
to accentuate its wholesale
business.
Englund Marine entered
Phoenix in 1995 with Ma-
rine Wholesale, serving the
Southwestern U.S.
In 2001, Englund Marine
bought out Fisher Brothers,
a 100-year-old industrial sup-
ply house in Astoria. It incor-
porated the company’s offer-
ings into its new, larger store
on Hamburg Avenue, opened
in early 2006.
Its subsidiary, U.S. Dis-
tributing, opened a satellite
store in Missoula, Mont., in
2007, focusing on after-mar-
ket parts and accessories
similar to those wanted in the
Phoenix warehouse.
The Englund Marine
Group now includes 11 loca-
tions through subsidiaries of
Englund Marine & Industrial
Supply Co. in Oregon, Wash-
ington and California; Marine
Wholesale in Arizona; and
U.S. Distributing in Oregon
and Montana.
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in Clackamas, is a dominant
“frivolous retread” of the ¿VK SURFHVVRU DQG GLVWULE
previous suit. “We expect XWRU DQG DOVR RZQV D ÀHHW
the complaint will be dis- RI ¿VKLQJ ERDWV $ORQJ
missed in short order,” he said. with the exclusive marketing
Occhipinti rejected the agreement with Ocean Gold,
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Seafood might not rebuild food’s president and chief
in Warrenton. “We are as H[HFXWLYH RI¿FHU DOUHDG\
committed to rebuilding in KROGVVLJQL¿FDQWVWRFNLQWKH
Warrenton today as we were Westport, Wash., company.
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he said. “It’s a complicated 3DFL¿F6HDIRRG¶VGRPLQDQFH
process and it’s taking much has caused a lack of com-
longer than we would like. petition that has led to price
But we are committed.”
suppression.
Daily Astorian File
Longtime Englund Marine
& Industrial Supply em-
ployee Ron Fox talks to Fre-
da Englund at the store’s
grand opening event in
May 2006.
Some of the company’s
ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian
major accomplishments over
Astoria firefighter Avery Petersen climbs to the top
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of a ladder to direct water onto the flames rising
Englund, focus on its efforts
from the roof of Pacific Seafood’s processing plant
to become more digitized,
in Warrenton in 2013.
switching to electronic in-
voicing and launching a new
website for its wholesale
business,
www.englund-
marinegroup.com, in 2012.
The company’s most re-
cent acquisition was in As-
toria, where last month in as-
sumed the lease of Columbia
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less Internet access throughout
its main Astoria retail cen- Continued from Page 1A
town, beginning in the busi-
ter. It plans to use the 10,000
square foot building, former- and commissions to ensure ness corridors;
• Whether the city should
ly for mechanical work on they’re staying on task;
• Identifying how much make public beach accesses
boats, for warehousing.
available land exists in Can- more uniform and more visible
non Beach and determine what from the coastline;
• Whether an events cen-
could be used to build afford-
ter should be built in Cannon
able housing.
Beach, and if it should go on
crashed. I was thinking more
Work sessions
the 58-acre South Wind site;
about survival. Survival will
At its 2015 work sessions,
• Upgrading electric, water
be a priority every time.”
and sewer services at the city-
Siddon says he’s consider- the council plans to discuss:
• Repairs and renovations owned RV Park;
ing getting back into the bear
• Whether the city should
business, but it likely would at City Hall and Tolovana
allow the proposed Cannon
take about $50,000 to build Hall;
• Placing the city’s utilities Beach Academy charter school
the kind of faciility ODFW
to use a portion of the RV park
underground;
now requires.
• Setting up integrated wire- as a temporary location.
Gillin says his agency like-
ly would have to be involved
in the design, and other is-
Visit us online at
sues, such as regular access
to veterinarians, would come
www.DailyAstorian.com
into play before an Oregon
facility could begin receiving
orphaned bears.
“We’d like to get back into
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Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
money to do it,” Siddon says.
Until then, it will be Kodi,
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Yak and four resident black
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
bears that will hold court at
Wildlife Images. These bruins
have long been too ruined for
release.
1004 Commercial St.,
“In a way, I’m glad Kodi
Astoria, OR 97103
503-325-4400
and Yak didn’t go back to
Astoria’s Premier Bed & Bath Store
FIN E L IN E N S A N D SO M U C H M O R E !
Alaska,” Siddon says. “I like
w w w .in th ebou doirs.com
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having grizzlies.”
Council: Renovations,
repairs to buildings will be
discussed at work sessions
Refuges: ‘You need to keep human interaction to zero’
Continued from Page 1A
“Rehab’s a tricky busi-
ness,” says Colin Gillin, state
wildlife veterinarian for the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, which over-
sees animal rehab in Oregon.
“Even a little bear that goes in
(a rehab center) at 13 pounds
comes out at over 100 pounds.
If they’re habituated, there’s a
problem.
“The really good rehabbers
who do bears don’t want to
give you a bear back that has
to be euthanized in a month,”
Gillin says.
The issue was raised twice
recently when orphaned black
bear cubs captured in Jackson
County — one after running
through an Ashland pharma-
cy on Oct. 19 and another, a
13-pound cub, after it fell out
of a homeowner’s tree on Jan.
6 — had to be shipped out of
state for care.
The Ashland cub was sent
to a Washington facility, but it
was later euthanized because
it was showing kidney failure.
The 13-pound cub was shipped
Wednesday to an Idaho center,
where it will live in a large en-
closure with natural denning
sites and food sources until it
is returned to Jackson County
in the spring for release.
The process must be liter-
ally as hands-off as possible
to give the bear a chance at
being wild again.
“They can’t see people, pe-
riod,” says Mark Vargas, the
ODFW’s Rogue District wild-
life biologist. “It’s best if they
can’t hear people, even smell
them. Ideally, you need to keep
human interaction to zero.”
That wasn’t the case in the
1970s through the ‘90s, when
the elder Siddon took in all
sorts of bears that had regular
interaction and exposure to
people at his Merlin center.
“Dad had a pretty casu-
al attitude about it,” Siddon
says. “He had an, ‘Ah, we’ll
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That wasn’t uncommon then.
In the early days of rehab, a
lot less attention went into
keeping the bears as wild as
they can be.”
As biologists here and
throughout the West began to
document nuisance and hu-
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leased bears, they, veterinari-
ans and rehabbers alike began
to rethink their practices.
Now, Wildlife Images ap-
plies nonhabituation tactics
to all their rehabbed wildlife,
especially with raptors, Sid-
don says.
“We’ve changed how
things are done,” he says.
“You adapt as new informa-
tion becomes available.”
As that new information
about black bear habituation
led the ODFW to ratchet up
its requirements, places such
as Wildlife Images couldn’t
adapt.
“It’s a pretty sizable in-
vestment,” Siddon says. “It
also was when the economy
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