Made in Bellingham: Trans-Ocean's faux crab: company has grown from $3 million a year in...

There's no way around it--factory work is not easy. Spending eight hours per day in a noisy warehouse processing fish products is difficult work.

Rick Dutton, president of Trans-Ocean Products on Orchard Street in Bellingham, understands this fact and has done everything he can to try to make the work for his employees as interesting and worthwhile as possible--and in the process, he has grown the company from sales of $3 million per year in 1985 to more than $40 million last year.

Trans-Ocean Products, which produces imitation crab and other fish products,