Klukwan Inc.: Investment Success and Jobs for Shareholders.

• Author: SWAGEL, WILL
• Position: Brief Article

Klukwan Inc., based in northern Southeast Alaska, has had such success in its nearly three decades of existence it can be rightly held against some regional Native corporations in economic and employment clout. Klukwan Inc.'s shareholders have enjoyed top dividends. The corporation has ranked as an Alaska Business Monthly Top 49er since 1986--giving it status among the top Alaskan-owned and -operated businesses in the state, based on revenue.

Klukwan is the village corporation for Klukwan, formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 and established in 1973. The village of Klukwan, just a few miles by road from Haines and the Alaska Highway, is a quiet Native community, off the beaten track from tourism and major development.

The quiet town belies the energy of its corporation. Headquartered in Juneau, Klukwan has operations located in Haines, Ketchikan and elsewhere in Alaska, but also in such diverse areas as Colorado and Arizona.

At present, Klukwan Inc. is concentrating on four main operations: a ferry and tourism operation, a plywood plant, a heavy construction company and a mining and explosives supply firm.

Klukwan's Chilkat Cruises and Tours operates a high-speed catamaran-style vessel that plies picturesque Lynn Canal between Haines and Skagway in just 40 minutes. With the vessel operating during the summer months, the majority of passengers are tourists, who hear colorful Tlingit and Gold Rush tales during their tour. Residents of Haines and Skagway also take the pleasant cruise for business and personal travel. Chilkat Cruises offers specialty tours, as well as rail-ferry packages with the White Pass railroads.

K Ply Inc. is a plywood producing company with roots back to the 1940s. Klukwan Inc. purchased K Ply in 1989 and now has about 200 workers at its Port Angeles, Wash., mill, says corporation president Ronald Gelbrich.

Providing employment for the 350 Klukwan Inc. shareholders and their families is a major goal of the corporation, along with investment success.

"We have shareholders all over the world," Gelbrich says. "We have a lot of shareholders in Washington, but we have also had people move from Alaska to Washington to work. And we have had shareholders from out-of-state move back to Alaska to work in the tourism operation."

The third core business is South Coast...