Small business of the year: home port seafood
Word-of-mouth packs in the business Home Port processes about 9 million pounds of fish a year By Sherri Huleatt
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ince 1992, Home Port Seafoods in Bellingham has gone from fileting and packing seafood for just a handful of local fisherman to serving global retailers. Home Port works with clients from Bellingham to Germany and packs about 9 million pounds of seafood every year. Surprisingly, in the last 23 years, they haven’t done any marketing. 40 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
All of their growth is by word of mouth referral from satisfied customers. “I can’t tell you how many times a customer comes to us after going somewhere else, and they say how much they love our crew,” said Christie Benson, who runs the business as the vice president of the company owned by her parents, Glen and Jeanne Binschus. Glen had worked many years for conglomerate Trident Seafoods before founding Home Port. “They say we do the best work in the industry, and to hear that makes me so proud of my dad,” Benson said.
Home Port Seafoods first filets, then vacuum packs, freezes, labels, and packages seafood for about 110 fishers and businesses from as close as Lummi Island Wild fishery co-op about a mile away, to industry brands around the world. Home Port manages this global customer base with 65 employees – all but five in Whatcom County. Binschus was just 18 when he got his first job stacking frozen halibut at Bellingham Cold Storage. Shortly thereafter, he was recruited by Vita Foods, then Sea West, and then Trident. After turning down a job in Alaska, Binschus decided that at 51, he’d open a little