Haida Enterprise Corporation (HaiCo) has added another business to its growing suite of enterprises: seafood processing.
HaiCo announced Wednesday it has acquired Seapak QCI Processing Ltd. in Massett. The company provides seafood smoking and processing for the sports fishing sector.
The Seapak acquisition was made with an equity investment from the Secretariat of the Haida Nation, with financing from the Tribal Resources Investment Corporation and the Bank of Montreal.
Seapak is just the latest acquisition by HaiCo, the enterprise arm of the Haida First Nation.
At the end of June, HaiCo bought a tree farm licence from Richmond-based Western Forest Products (TSX:WEF) at the end of June.
Earlier this year, it also acquired the financially troubled West Coast Resorts, which operates four luxury fishing lodges.
Seapak already had contracts to provide the processing and smoking for fishing lodges on Haida Gwaii, so the acquisition made sense, according to Bob Brash, vice-president responsible for HaiCo's West Coast Resorts operations.
"This acquisition creates synergies for our own lodges and provides new opportunities for West Coast customers to get their catch processed locally.”
HaiCo CEO Kevin Ainsworth said, "The Seapak acquisition is part of HaiCo's strategic, long-term goal of integrating and building local businesses and creating value-added opportunities and new employment from sustainably harvested natural resources on Haida Gwaii.”
