May 4, 2011

 

Barry Group to start business at Harbour Breton plant

 

 

If everything goes as per planned, the Barry Group of Companies (BGOC) will have their personal aquaculture processing business taking place in Harbour Breton on November 1, 2013.

 

Bill Barry, the CEO of the BGOC, told the Harbour Breton town council at a meeting on April 26 that it is the company's intention to operate the facility once the current operating lease with Cooke Aquaculture expires on October 31, 2013.

 

The BGOC owns the present processing plant in Harbour Breton and has been leasing the facility to Cooke Aquaculture, which has been processing their fish at the facility for the past several years.

 

Barry said, "We will not be leasing our facility to Cooke Aquaculture once the present lease expires. We have secured a supply of fish from Northern Harvest Sea Farms that will stabilise the operation at, or beyond, the levels it has been working at with Cooke."

 

Barry said there are several reasons why his company decided to take this major step moving forward.

 

"We want to be a part of the aquaculture picture in the Coast of Bays well into the future. We feel that St. Alban's and Harbour Breton are strategic locations for the industry and will continue to be so much farther down the road.

 

"The south coast of Newfoundland is uniquely positioned to be the key part of the province's aquaculture industry. We have some semblance of global warming and, as this continues to happen, the water profile in the area will be more suitable for raising fish.

 

"We also want to be here because Harbour Breton is a big community with a great work force and a very progressive council. We think that this community has one of the brightest futures in the province's fishing industry and that it certainly deserves our full attention in this regard."

 

The BGOC also said on April 26 that it will continue to modernise its present plant in St. Alban's and is committed to either modernising its present plant in Harbour Breton or building a new processing facility in that community.

 

Barry said, "We spent CAD1.5 million (US$1.57 million) in 2010 in upgrading our plant in St. Alban's, and we will complete another renovation/upgrading project on that facility in 2011 to the tune of about CAD2 million (US$2.1 million).

 

"We have to complete this work to accommodate the amount of material available to that plant from different user groups providing that facility now.

 

"Once the work is completed in St. Alban's, our company will immediately start its homework on drawing up plans to modernise the Harbour Breton plant or to rebuild a new facility for that community."

 

Barry said that the Harbour Breton project would cost many millions of dollars and that the new Barry operation would be ready to begin as soon as the Cooke lease expires. He said there would be no loss of time in moving from one operating system to another.

 

He said, "The wharf needs work, the current plant needs work, and we are going to look at the best long-term ideas for that particular location."

 

Barry said that he is very excited about his company's future role in the aquaculture industry in the Coast of Bays.

 

"We know the growth profile of all the aquaculture companies in the area, and we will be expanding to accommodate everybody's needs. We are certainly willing to talk to other companies in the area about what their future plans may be in terms of processing. We may end up doing something with the other companies of they may decide to process their own fish," Barry said.

 

Mayor Eric Skinner said that the Barry commitment is good news for the community as it ensures the long-term operation of the plant and that it will mean either a refurbished or a new processing plant for the community.

 

Skinner said, "The Barry commitment to start its own processing operation in Harbour Breton means that we can look forward to a long future as part of the aquaculture picture in the Coast of Bays. This is certainly good news for our residents."

 

Eric Day is the deputy Mayor of Harbour Breton and the president of the FFAW local union.

 

Day said, "I think the fact that we will have two major players in the aquaculture game in our community is great news for everyone. The Barry employees in St. Alban's are unionised so our union status should not be a problem in this matter.

 

"If Cooke Aquaculture has its own processing facility in Harbour Breton the employees will have to make a choice as to where they will work in late 2013," Day said.

 

Nell Halse, the vice-president of communications with Cooke Aquaculture said that as of April 27, Cooke had not yet been informed by the Town of Harbour Breton or Bill Barry of any plans pertaining to the Harbour Breton facility.

 

Halse said that Cooke is still working on their best option for a long-term corporate processing facility.

 

Halse said, "Our plan is to have that facility located in Harbour Breton. We have already outlined to the provincial government that we are committed to a plant operation at Harbour Breton for the long-term processing strategy in the Coast of Bays region.

 

"We have supported the Town's efforts to build new infrastructure to support a processing hub for Harbour Breton. We have also been very clear to the town, and the province, that a coordinated bio-security approach for the town's facilities (wharves, roads and plants) is critical to our company and to the health and prosperity of the industry and the community, both short-term and long-term.

 

"We value the support of the workforce in Harbour Breton as we have been processing steady volumes and employment has been stable for a long time."