75th Anniversary IceBreaker Cover

Cheers to 75 Years

October 25, 2022

Supporting the Cold Chain Industry


On January 18th 1946 Bellingham Cold Storage received its original business license from the State of Washington. The 2021 season marks our 75th year of operations and my how the company has grown over the past seven and a half decades. Cheers to 75 years.

Founders

The C/P Arctic Storm docked. Overall length: 272ft, bredth: 44ft, draft: 28ft, speed in service: 12 knots, frozen cargo hold: 930 tons, max capacity of crew: 127

We have added 19 new warehouses since the summer of 1946 along with 12 on-site processing tenant facilities, numerous offices for customers, inspection agency offices, a fuel dock a new ice house, freezing equipment and a marine terminal that has accommodated billions of pounds of activity over the years.

We have customers that have been with BCS for over 50 years like Andy Vitaljic and some that are very new to us. There are over 600 customers in total today which is incredible considering we started with just one, Stokely Van Camp. We have had massive customers medium sized customer, and small customers.

bcs products cheers to 75 years

We have navigated a number of different challenging times, including fuel shortages during the 70’s, several stock market falls in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s, the Enron energy crisis of 2000, a fire in 2008, the loss of several significant customers from time to time, and most recently the 2020 Covid pandemic. Through it all BCS has been blessed with employees who are dedicated to making sure that somehow we all have a place to return to work to following each of these major events that we pulled together to navigate through…

This past year has been no different and we are pleased to be finishing out our 75th year with renewed hope for a brighter future for our employees, our customers, and the company while continuing to give back to the great community that we call home.

Here’s to the first 75 years in business together… Many thanks to the countless customers, employees and service partners that have been so instrumental to our successes over the years. We are also thankful for the many local leaders and city, county and Port of Bellingham leaders that have helped BCS along the way. We are
humbled by your support, loyalty and are inspired by your devotion to making the first 75 years possible.

View photos of our 75th anniversary celebration here.

If you’re looking to expand in the US, we have space.
Contact Jose Roques at bcsmarketing@bellcold.com