Interior Alaska Fish Processors.

• Author: Martin, Ingrid
• Position: Alaskan company specializing in fish, poultry and meat processing - Special Section: Small Business

For a while, Virgil Umphenour was content to make a steady living cleaning and freezing salmon and shipping the fish to Los Angeles. He also produced smoked fish products and processed local hunters' game.

After more than four years in the business, the urge to expand his Santa's Smokehouse in North Pole got the better of him. Umphenour incorporated his business as Interior Alaska Fish Processors Inc. in 1988. The following year, he leased a building that had been constructed in the mid-80s as a slaughterhouse. From this second site on Davis Road in the Fairbanks industrial area, Umphenour expanded his enterprise from a seasonal operation to a year-round one.

The 8,845-square-foot structure is six times the size of his original quarters in North Pole. Built on a 75,000-square-foot parcel of land that belongs to the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the building was financed through a state Agricultural Revolving Fund loan and was nine-tenths complete when the state took it over in 1986.

Umphenour added a loading dock and modified the building's electrical system and plumbing. He installed an industrial-sized smoker, experimented with a recipe for fish sausage that has since proven popular, and began attending seafood shows. Umphenour also opened a "factory-direct" retail store carrying the company's own fresh, frozen and smoked fish, as well as seafood, poultry, meat and cheese products.

According to Umphenour, Interior Alaska Fish Processors is growing steadily. Besides operating the local market and supplying several tourist stops and military commissaries, his Santa's Smokehouse fillets, jerkys, sausages, hot links, hot dogs and burgers are now marketed nationwide through distributors on the Lower 48's east and west coasts.

Although the Santa's Smokehouse products are manufactured for sale in Alaska with fish or meat ingredients, Interior Alaska Fish Processors has been able to send only fish products outside the state. The company is being reviewed for U.S. Department of Agriculture approval that would allow it to ship red meat products Outside as well. Other products Umphenour hopes to begin marketing include a cream cheese and salmon spread and smoked cod.

Umphenour estimates he sends about 200,000 pounds of fresh-frozen fish, primarily chum salmon, to Los Angeles each year. Another 30,000 pounds of chum and king salmon are air-freighted fresh to Los Angeles and Boston each summer.

The corporation also sells a special-recipe ikura, or...