Bainbridge Island has always meant strawberries. The island used to be covered with strawberry fields and had two canneries. (See Bainbridge Island Historical Society)
The fame of island strawberries has gone far and wide. During a visit to Victoria, British Columbia, the Queen of England made a special request for Bainbridge Island strawberries.
Interpack's roots can be traced to the early 30's to one of Clarence Birdseye's lieutenants, Pete Hamilton. Pete started his business, Northwest Cold Pack, in 1937. During the ice box days of the 20's and 30's berries were "cold packed" in wooden drums on ice thus the name Pete gave to his company. Legend has it that as home refrigerators with freezers became more widely available, Pete helped Clarence introduce the whole idea of frozen food to the "Chicago market".
Out of NW Cold Pack, in 1988 Interpack was born. All three founders worked for Pete. Tom Greene, who worked the waterfront in Seattle filling up Japanese steamships, Francisco Ortiz, a Mexican strawberry grower and processor and Jennifer Miller, the financial wizard of the operation, established Interpack to supply frozen fruit and juice to the food industry in North America and abroad. After a few years, the company reorganized, the office in Zamora, Michoacan, Mexico closed and Tom bought out his partners.
To this day, like the island strawberry growers of yesteryear and the early frozen food brokers of the 30's in Chicago, Interpack continues the tradition of supplying fruit and juice to markets around the world from Bainbridge Island, WA.
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| Modern Day Historical. Interpack staff on location |
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