Liquidation of Mat Maid Dairy to be handled by Outside firm

MAT-SU — A group of Alaska auctioneers is protesting the state Creamery Corp.’s decision to contract with an Outside firm to auction off equipment of the defunct Matanuska Maid Dairy.

Ron Alleva of Grubstake Auction Co. Inc. said his company has banded together with Alaska Statewide Auction Service, North Pacific Auctioneers, Denali Auction Co. and Alaska Auctions to protest the fact that the contract went to an Outside firm.

Further, they are protesting that the bid was awarded through a process the local auctioneers claim was less than fair and did not conform to state guidelines for requesting bids. A press release from Alleva’s company says they are taking their protest to the governor, the Legislature and the creamery’s board of directors.

Kristan Cole, chairman of the Creamery Corp. board of directors, said the bid process conformed to all applicable regulations. But the corporation, as an entity separate from the state, was not bound by the state’s procurement codes.

She said the creamery decided to go with a bid submitted by Rabin Worldwide and Tauber-Arons Inc. because the bid provided the best terms and maximized revenue expected to come from the sale of equipment.

“They’re an international organization who can aggressively market the equipment not just within the state of Alaska but also internationally,” Cole said.

Alleva said his main complaint is that the contract should have gone to an Alaska company.

“We don’t need to be sending for people from California. Why would you do that?” Alleva said.

He said his firm can do as good a job, if not better, than the one the Creamery Corp. selected. He said the equipment should probably stay in state and who better to facilitate that than a local auction house?

Calling the decision an “insult” to Alaska auctioneers, Alleva said he’s called for a boycott of Alaska Grown products, since both the labeling program and the creamery receive funds from the Department of Natural Resources.

“You want to take a meal off my table and you want me to put a meal on yours?” Alleva said.

He said the second part of his protest is that he never received a solicitation to bid on the sale of Mat-Maid’s equipment.

“We read it in the paper,” Alleva said. “What a way to inform local auctioneers that, ‘Hey, one of the biggest sales of the decade is coming up.’”

Cole said the corporation followed to the letter all regulations applying to the request for bids.

The corporation expects the sale will generate more than $1 million, Cole said. The board is fine-tuning the contract and hopes to move ahead with the auction within the next 60 days.

The auction will liquidate all the assets of the dairy’s operations in Anchorage and Palmer, including all the equipment to make milk as well as trailers and the creamery’s bottle-making equipment, she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.