British Columbia Packers Limited fonds
- Part Of:
- British Columbia Packers Limited fonds
- Type
- Community Records
- GMD
- graphic; textual records; cartographic material; moving images
- Date
- 1890-2001
- Level:
- Fonds
- Physical Description:
- 14 metres of multiple media
- Scope:
- The fonds consists of material documenting aspects of the operation, maintenance, and administration of British Columbia Packers Limited and its predecessor and subsidiary companies, primarily in British Columbia, but also in other Canadian locations, in the United Stated, and in other countries. It includes trademark administration records and associated product labels; public and corporate relations materials comprising accumulations and collections of photographs and textual material; photographic and textual records used to document operations for organizational and legal accountablity; employee and community relations material, including photographs of workplaces and social events; and advertising and marketing material, including samples of product packaging. Fonds is arranged in 12 series: 1. Organizational Records (1929-1983); 2. Barker Letter Books (1905-1926); 3. Property Administration and Development (1912-2001); 4. Production Records (1913-1973); 5. Trademark Administration (1890-1999); 6. Merchandising (1903-1997); 7. Public Relations (1935-1999); 8. Human Resources (1915-1999); 9. Head Office Photograph Collection; 10. Head Office Art Collection; 11. Fishing Industry Reference Library Collection; 12. Operational Sites - Canneries, Plants and Fishing Stations.
- History / Biographical:
- British Columbia Packers Limited was created in 1928, following a series of amalgamations in the North American fish packing industry that had begun in the late 19th century. These amalgamations had included, in 1902, the creation of the British Columbia Packers Association of New Jersey by a group of American and Canadian investors, and their subsequent purchase of forty-two canneries and two cold storage plants. Led by Canadian businessmen Aemilius Jarvis of Toronto and Henry Doyle of Vancouver, it was the first successful attempt to amalgamate the canneries of the Fraser River. In 1910, to avoid the payment of New Jersey corporate tax, the company was registered in British Columbia through an act of the provincial legislature. In 1914, the principals of British Columbia Packers Association incorporated a new company under charter of the Dominion of Canada. Initially a holding company, in 1921 the British Columbia Fishing and Packing Company Limited became the operating company for the assets of British Columbia Packers Association. In 1928, having undergone a major expansion of its operations through the acquisition of Wallace Fisheries Limited, British Columbia Fishing and Packing merged with Gosse Packing Company Limited to create British Columbia Packers Limited. In 1934, all of the subsidiary companies holding the assets controlled and operated by British Columbia Packers Limited were liquidated, and the assets transferred to the latter. The company evolved into a horizontally and vertically integrated entity that featured a world-wide marketing and distribution network. At the peak of its growth, British Columbia Packers controlled assets by direct ownership or through wholly-owned subsidiary companies that included fishing stations, fish and fruit canneries, fresh fish branches, fish-curing establishments, cold storage plants, reduction plants, food testing laboratories, whaling stations, general stores, and shipyards. These included, at various times, the following: Operational Sites in British Columbia: Alert Bay Cannery Bella Bella Cannery Bella Coola Cannery (fishing station) Boswell Cannery (fishing station) Brunswick Cannery (fishing station) Celtic Shipyards Claxton Cannery Currie McWilliams Cannery Delta Plant Ecoole Reduction Plant Hecate Reduction Plant Imperial Cannery Imperial Plant (and fishing stations) Kildonan Cannery Kimsquit Cannery (fishing station) Klemtu Ladner Cannery Lowe Inlet Cannery (fishing station) Mill Bay Cannery (store) Namu Cannery (reduction plant) New Westminster Cannery Pacofi Cannery (reduction plant) Paramount Cannery Port Edward Cannery Quathiaski Plant Richmond Plant Saanich Cannery St. Mungo Cannery Seal Cove Plant Shannon Bay Cannery Sunnyside Cannery Terra Nova Cannery Victoria Cold Storage Plant Wadham’s (cannery, general store) Related Companies: Allied Pacfic Processors Bay Point Oyster Farms (U.S.A) Brunswick Development Corporation Limited Canadian Fish and Cold Storage Company Limited Canadian Packing Company Limited Coast Oyster Company (U.S.A.) Coast Oyster Company of California (U.S.A.) Connors Bros. Limited Edmunds and Walker Limited Humboldt Oyster Company (U.S.A.) Mar Seafoods (Fishing Company Incorporated) McCallum Sales Limited Nelbro Holding Company (U.S.A.) Nelbro Packing Company (U.S.A.) Nelson Brothers Fisheries Limited (Queensborough Shipyard) North American Testing Limited Port Edward Marine Services Limited Queen Charlotte Canners Limited Rupert Fish Company Incorporated (U.S.A.) Rupert’s Certi-Fresh Foods, Incorporated (U.S.A.) Rupert’s International Sales Corporation (U.S.A.) Sea Breeze, Incorporated (U.S.A.) J.H. Todd and Sons Limited Western Canada Whaling Company Limited Willapa Oyster Farms (U.S.A.) Much of British Columbia Packers expansion outside of British Columbia took place after the Second World War. It began to acquire sales offices and production facilities in the United States in the late 1940’s, and this continued in the following decade. For example, the company acquired Freeman’s Certi-Fresh Foods of Los Angeles, California, in 1954, and Coast Oyster Company, with assets in California and Washington, in 1956. In 1957, it acquired interests in fishing operations in Peru. In 1967, British Columbia Packers began a joint venture with Nelson Brothers Fisheries Limited in herring meal and oil production at Isle aux Morts, Newfoundland. In the late 1970’s, British Columbia Packers acquired a 30 percent interest in Mar Fishing Company, Inc., which produced tuna out of a plant in Mindanao, Philippines. In 1968, R.I. Nelson of Nelson Brothers Fisheries Limited became President and Chief Executive Officer of British Columbia Packers, marking the integration of this company and British Columbia Packers Limited. Also during this decade, British Columbia Packers was itself acquired by the Weston group of companies. British Columbia Packers appears to have struggled in the early 1980’s, and with the fishing industry as a whole, began a period of change and restructuring. Its operations were dissolved in 1996 and 1997 through merger with Canadian Fisheries Company Limited; a successor company, BCPL Limited, owned by George Weston Limited, undertook the disposition of British Columbia Packers real property and other assets. (The bulk of British Columbia Packers executive and legal records have apparently been transferred to George Weston Limited, and did not form part of Accession 2001-34.) British Columbia Packers appears to have been administered out of head offices in Vancouver until 1968, and thereafter in Steveston. At the company’s peak of size and scope in the late 1970’s, eight Vice-Presidents were responsible for the following functional or operational designations: finance, planning, marketing, Pacific operations, production/British Columbia operations, Philippine operations, United States operations, and industrial relations. The chief executive officers of British Columbia Packers and its immediate predecessors were as follows: British Columbia Packers’ Association (of New Jersey) Alexander Ewen, President, 1902-1907 William Henry Barker, President, 1907-1914 British Columbia Fishing and Packing Company Limited William Henry Barker, President, 1914-1926 Aemilius Jarvis, President, 1926-1928 British Columbia Packers Limited Aemilius Jarvis, President, 1928-1930; Chairman, 1930-1932 Stanley Burke, President, 1930-1933 H.R. Macmillan, President, 1933-1946; Chairman, 1946-1956 J.M. Buchanan, President, 1946-1956, 1958-1964; Chairman, 1956-1958 R.E. Walker, President, 1956-1958 J.N. Hyland, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, 1964-1967 K.F. Fraser, President, 1964-1967 R.I. Nelson, President and Chief Executive Officer, 1969-1974; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, 1975- G.E. Creber, Chairman, 1969- J.B. Buchanan, President and Chief Operating Officer, 1979-1982 (Vice-Chairman 1983- Donald A. McLean, President, 1983-
- Name(s):
- British Columbia Packers Limited
- Creator:
- British Columbia Packers Limited
RecordType=graphictextual recordscartographic materialmoving images
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