Fish story: third-generation Seattle Fish Co. has stocked inland eateries since 1918.

• Author: Jackson, Margaret
• Position: FAMILY OWNED COMPANIES - James Iacino - Table

James Iacino knows fish.

As a 12-year-old, he accompanied his father to work at Seattle Fish Co., the business founded by his grandfather, Mose Iacino, in 1918. Over the years, he's done everything from paperwork to cutting fish to loading and driving trucks.

He started full-time with the Denver-based company eight years ago, after graduating from Colorado State University with a degree in political science and business management. He began working in purchasing, traveling the world to meet vendors and even lived in Japan working as a sushi chef. Then it was onto sales, before taking the helm of the company as president and chief executive in 2009.

"Dad was 64 when I came in, and he was ready to retire," Iacino, 33, says. "He always nudged me to join the company, but he was always open to us doing whatever we wanted to do."

Though his father, Edward, is now pressing him to have a child so the baton can be passed to a fourth generation, Iacino says the current thinking in succession planning is for the children of business owners to work outside the family business first.

"It's important to get experience doing something else," says Iacino, who worked in movie theaters and restaurants during summers his family spent in Michigan starting in 1995.

Iacino's younger sister, Chelsea, worked in the company's human resources department until she moved to Roatan, Honduras, following her fishy bloodline to become a master scuba diver.

COMPANY CHRONICLE

Seattle Fish derives its name from its origins--as a 16-year-old, Mose Iacino developed a system in 1918 for transporting fresh seafood by railcar from Seattle to Colorado. Fish was packed in sawdust and ice, and at each train stop the ice was replenished to keep the product fresh. Mose started out selling oysters and rabbit from a pushcart in Lower Downtown, before taking over a corner of his uncle's shop at 1537 Market St. Soon, he was peddling his wares wholesale to restaurants in the Brown Palace and Oxford hotels.

Mose, who died in 1995, went to the office every day until his 90th birthday.

"You'd see him riding an exercise bike and smoking cigars," James Iacino says. "He ate fish every day. He was always looking over my dad's shoulder. Even though Dad had taken over and had ownership, he was always in the office. My dad did not do that to me."

Seattle Fish remained at a storefront on Market Street until 1982, when Edward built a new 65,000-square-foot facility in Park Hill. Initially, the space had a retail shop, but was closed because the company didn't want to compete with its retail customers.

At the time the new facility was built, 80 percent of the company's products were frozen, so the building boasted the largest freezer west of the Mississippi River at 30,000 square feet. As Seattle Fish shifted more toward fresh seafood --today 80 percent of its products are fresh--the team modified the freezer, shrinking it to 10,000 square...