IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE AMERICAN FISH & SEAFOOD
COMPANY AS ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE TOPSELLING
FRESH AND FROZEN SEAFOOD PROVIDER IT
today, but founder George Doizaki’s profound success traces its roots to a momentary diversion, when George was stopped by a lake in Utah as he traveled home to Los Angeles. He had spent the war years avoiding internment farming with re l atives in Colorado, an experience that taught him he didn’t want to be a farm e r. As he stood by the lake, watching a group of f i s herman, George Doizaki decided that somehow, some way, his future was in fish.

Not long after this revelation, George, along with his partner Masuro Okamoto, founded American Fish & Seafood Company. The early days were anything but easy. Mainstream households had not yet learned the value of fresh seafood for regular meals, at least not beyond the “fish for Friday” rituals o b s e rved by many Catholics. But the men persisted, and those early customers were loyal. The first processing plant was humble in comparison to those of today, and fish was
delivered on the back of a flatbed truck. From the beginning,
George and his partner were deeply committed to quality and
service, and this commitment proved to be the backbone of
the company, sustaining its steady growth and development to
the dynamic business it is today, delivering over a million
pounds of seafood to happy customers each week.

Three years after they opened, longtime family friend Harry Fujino joined the effort, and secured for the company their first major retailer, Vons Grocery Company. Throughout the 1950s the gentlemen gradually increased their service base, adding supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, caterers, airlines, and cruise lines. As their client base grew,
they branched out of the Los Angeles area, serving clients on
both the east and west coasts. In May of 1981 the company
split into two separate divisions: Los Angeles Fish would serve

over 300 Japanese restaurants, headed up by Hisato Doizaki. American Fish continued in the vein envisioned by George Doizaki. When he passed away in 1982, his son took over as president, heading up a skilled cadre of executives practiced in purc h a s i n g , o p e rations finance, and sales and marketing. In December of 2002 Ernie became chairman of the board.

American Fish & Seafood then began a period of geographic expansion, growing into the sizable corporation it is today. It boasts nine distribution centers: American Fish Los Angeles, Central Fish, American Fish Reno, American Fish Sacramento, American Fish Palm Desert - Cactus Cove, Los Angeles Fish, American Fish Arizona, Kansas Marine East Cost and Kansas Marine West Coast . The Kansas Marine divisions serves the major cruise lines, supplying not only fish, but also everything the cruise lines require to provide service, from TVs to mattresses. In the midst of this rapid growth, Ernie recognized the need for tight control on the quality of the products. To ensure excellence, they became the first distributor in the western United States to use a voluntary government inspection. The plants and p roducts are inspected by the United States Department of Commerce, and meet all requirements to be H.A.C.C.P. approved.

Today, American Fish & Seafood employs over 500 people in its plants across the nation and recently added an Internet division, providing customers even greater ease of purchasing. The Internet division pairs its offerings with recipes from a professional chef, bringing ever-increasing choices and information to customers.

They build a new 65,000-square-foot plant, and moved the headquarters and American Fish LA to this facility in early 2005. American Fish & Seafood has enjoyed continual growth and success over the last half-century. The addition of each new plant brings with it a new g e neral manager and a new team of professionals to uphold the company’s original values. Through all the changes, it is the adherence to those values that never wavers, and this steadfast commitment to excellence is plain to see in the millions of satisfied customers and clients served by American Fish & Seafood.