BC Packers Ltd

BC PACKERS LTD was the largest fish processing company on the coast until the late 1990s. Its predecessor, the BC Packers Assoc, was formed in 1902 and purchased several SALMON CANNING operations accumulated by Henry DOYLE and Aemilius Jarvis. Originally incorporated in 1903 under a New Jersey charter, it was reincorporated as a BC Special Act company in 1910. In 1920 a reorganization resulted in the BC Fishing & Packing Co Ltd becoming the operating company. Following another reorganization and expansion in 1928, BC Packers Ltd was incorporated as an amalgamation with several other canning companies and became the dominant processing company on the coast. Its cannery in PRINCE RUPERT was once the largest in the world. The company was controlled by the Toronto food conglomerate George Weston Ltd from the late 1950s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of that company in 1985. Besides SALMON, the company processed and marketed a variety of seafood products and was involved in salmon farming (see AQUACULTURE, FIN FISH). Its farm operations were subsequently transferred to another Weston subsidiary, Connors Bros Ltd, operating as HERITAGE AQUACULTURE LTD. In 1999 BC Packers' branded canned seafood distribution business under the Clover Leaf and Paramount trademarks was sold to International Home Foods Inc of New Jersey and substantially all of its fishing and processing assets were sold to the CANADIAN FISHING CO, a division of Jim PATTISON Enterprises Ltd. See also FISHING, COMMERCIAL.