Atlantic Fish Specialties (AFS), a smokehouse operation regarded as one of the world's finest producers of smoked seafood, officially opened its expanded facilities in Charlottetown today. Although AFS has been in operation since 1981, Cooke Aquaculture Inc. of New Brunswick purchased the facility in 1997 and recently completed major renovations to the site.
Expanding the AFS plant was required to accommodate plans for increased production following Cooke Aquaculture's acquisition of Horton's Downeast Foods, a well-established processor and wholesale operation originally located in Waterboro, Maine. The entire Horton's operation was moved to AFS creating an anticipated $3.2 million in additional sales each year, which means more work and more employment for the Charlottetown operation.
"With this expansion, AFS could employ up to 70 people on a full-time basis to produce quality, value-added seafood products for local and export markets," said Mr. Shawn Murphy, Member of Parliament for Hillsborough on behalf of the Honourable Robert Thibault, Minister of State for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and the Honourable Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).
The wide range of AFS smoked seafood products including salmon, scallops and shrimp are marketed to hotels, restaurants, airlines, cruise ships and retail stores around the world.
"Atlantic Fish Specialties is known across the globe for the high quality of its smoked seafood and this expansion reflects the demand for these products," said the Honourable Chester Gillan, Minister of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Environment on behalf of the Honourable Mike Currie, Minister of Development and Technology. "Cooke Aquaculture's vision with this project is commendable and the province is pleased to have supported these efforts. It is very rewarding to see all of the work taking place at this facility, not to mention the employment being created for Islanders."
Cooke Aquaculture is a vertically integrated seafood producing/supply company established in 1985 with subsidiary companies consisting of hatcheries, cage sites, processing facilities, vaccination services and net manufacturing and repair. Company CEO Glenn Cooke says adding AFS to Cooke Aquaculture's family operation was a natural fit.
"As world-wide production of farmed salmon increases, so does the requirement to have access to production further along the value chain," said Cooke. "Our recent acquisition of Horton Downeast Foods, originally located in Waterboro, Maine, meant that we needed to expand in order to accommodate the increased production that our new activities would bring. Today, AFS can supply the increased capacity we need, and do so in a much bigger and better facility."
The Province of PEI contributed to the Atlantic Fish Specialties project with a $470,000 forgivable performance loan through Prince Edward Island Business Development, as well as assistance through the Small Business Employee Support Program. ACOA's contribution was a $400,000 repayable loan and $150,000 was provided to the project through the Canada-Prince Edward Island Labour Market Development Agreement, a co-managed agreement between Human Resources Development Canada and the provincial Department of Development and Technology.