Inside Alaska Business
Alyeska Pipeline Service Company
The operator of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System heads into 2026 with about 8 percent fewer workers than a year earlier. Alyeska Pipeline Service Company announced in October it would reduce its total payroll of about 700 employees by an estimated 60 positions, for the sake of efficiency. Alyeska Pipeline is jointly owned by the companies that produce the North Slope oil transported by the 800-mile pipe to Valdez: ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Hilcorp affiliate Harvest Alaska.
Kenai Aviation
“I believe that Flight 144 will board again,” wrote Kenai Aviation owner Joel Caldwell while announcing a shutdown in service in early November. He said the company is operationally strong, but debt from the COVID-19 pandemic left the regional carrier financially insolvent. “We need capital, we need partners, we need a lifeline. That investor is out there; we just need to find them,” Caldwell elaborated. “I refuse to give up. I don’t know how.” Caldwell bought the company in 2017 to keep it flying after its founder died.
Three Bears Alaska
The newest location for Three Bears Alaska opened in Cooper Landing. The Wasilla-based retail chain purchased 13 acres in 2020 near Quartz Creek Campground, where the Sterling Highway bends by the glacier-blue Kenai River. The store selling groceries, liquor, and gas opened in the fall. The Cooper Landing location has room for campsites, RV parking, rental cabins, and a laundromat, which the company plans to add eventually.
Alaska Commercial Co.
A grand opening in October welcomed Alaska Commercial Company (AC) back to its northernmost store, a site it previously occupied until 2019. The largest retail building in Utqiaġvik had been lately occupied by Stuaqpak (the Iñupiaq word for “general store”), a business venture of former US Senator Mark Begich. By 2024, though, Stuaqpak was struggling and the building’s landlord, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, committed to finding a new tenant. Turns out it was the same as the old tenant. AC had retained a presence in town near the airport, which continues as AC Utqiaġvik. The new/old store borrows the previous name and is called AC Stuaqpak.
Breeze In
A sentinel on the island side of the Douglas Bridge in Juneau closed for good in October. The owners of the Douglas Breeze In were retiring and sold the shop to the Myers Group, a Washington-based company that bought the other two Breeze In convenience stores in Juneau last year, as well as the liquor license at the Douglas location. The license transferred to the Foodland IGA supermarket on the opposite side of Gastineau Channel. Kenny’s Liquor Market, a neighboring store to the IGA, closed in October.
Mosaic Media | MSI Communications
In a merger of marketing muscle, MSI Communications and Mosaic Media formed a strategic partnership. Laurie Fagnani, who founded MSI in 1995, plans to remain engaged with the team for the next year through the transition; Mary Ann Pruitt, who founded Mosaic in 2011, becomes owner of Mosaic Collaborative, a holding company for both businesses. Because Mosaic Media has a direct seat to a demand-side platform, the combined company can automate the purchase of digital ad space across websites and apps in real time.
GRSM
The law firm of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani (GRSM) now has a permanent location in Anchorage. GRSM has maintained a presence in Alaska since 2019, but the office at Fifth Avenue and L Street marks a milestone in the firm’s investment in the region. GRSM touts itself as the only full-service law firm with offices and attorneys in all fifty states. “Anchorage represents a vital part of our fifty-state platform and our long-term commitment to serving clients wherever their business takes them,” says Allen Estes, Anchorage Managing Partner. The firm plans to grow its team to fifteen attorneys in the coming years. Focus areas include finance, construction, consumer protection, labor, and government contracts.
Arcnito
The first AI-enabled startup in the North Slope is the brainchild of Lorenzo Chu. He created Arcnito, a community calendar and resource navigator that helps tribal communities find events, services, and benefits in one simple hub. That innovation took first prize in Alaska’s inaugural AI Pitch Showcase as part of Alaska Entrepreneurship Week at the end of September. Chu was awarded up to $50,000 in Amazon Web Services and hands-on mentorship from PREDICTif Solutions, the co-hosts of the event with the Alaska Small Business Development Center.
Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation
The largest seafood employer in Alaska wowed judges at the 2025 Symphony of Seafood in October. Trident Seafoods won the Most Innovative category with its wellFURst Calming Support Freeze-Dried Health Supplement for Dogs, and the People’s Choice award went to Trident’s Crispy Battered Sauceable Wild Alaska Pollock Nuggets. Homer-based seaweed processor Kachemak Kelp won the Beyond the Plate category with its Selkie Soak bath product. And the Best New Retail Product honored at the gala in Seattle was a Wild Salmon Curry dished up by Thunder’s Catch, an Idaho-based small business that fishes in Bristol Bay. Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation organizes the event to recognize excellence in value-added Alaska seafood innovation.